A "Blast" From the Past: 3 of the 4 Rules Broken

The Four Rules of Firearm Safety:

1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never point the gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target (and you have made the decision to shoot).
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

The Anchorage Daily News reported:

A long-standing neighborhood conflict over roaming dogs escalated when a 74-year-old man fired a shotgun out a window of his home, killing a loose Chihuahua and landing himself in jail on criminal charges, according to police.

Lowell Mueller was charged with reckless endangerment, cruelty to animals and fourth-degree misconduct with a weapon, according to police. He was arrested and later released on $500 bail with the condition that he not possess any firearms, police said.\

The shooting Sunday afternoon grew out of previous encounters involving the 8-pound male dog and an insurmountably larger female he couldn't seem to resist in the neighborhood off Lore Road and Lake Otis Parkway.

~ snip ~

Mueller leveled a semiautomatic .410-bore shotgun loaded with bird shot out an opened window and shot the animal on the street at a corner of his property, police Lt. Dave Parker said. Faux Pas was about 20 feet away from the window.

~ snip ~

The 10-year-old Chihuahua, Faux Pas, was apparently attracted to Mueller's own dog, which was in heat, Glasgow said. Mueller's dog was in a fenced dog run in the yard, which itself is not fenced.

Faux Pas made a fatal misstep when he approached Mueller's property on Zurich Street, according to police.

Mueller leveled a semiautomatic .410-bore shotgun loaded with bird shot out an opened window and shot the animal on the street at a corner of his property, police Lt. Dave Parker said. Faux Pas was about 20 feet away from the window.

Mueller was charged with recklessly firing the weapon because other people were in the area, Parker said.

"The shot was towards the road and the officer was concerned because the shot from the shotgun could have ricocheted and gone onward toward other homes in the area," Parker said. "There were children in the neighborhood playing in the yards directly east."

~ snip ~

When Faux Pas showed up Sunday afternoon, Mueller wanted to send a message, he said.

"I really didn't mean to make a killing shot on it. I just wanted to tickle it, is all I did, and I missed tickling it," Mueller said.

Tickle..? Who does he think he is: Joe Biden? Srsly, there are so many things wrong here that it's hard to know where to start.

Like Ron White says, you can't fix stupid.