Monday, August 15, 2005

But the Police Did Not Arrest Him??

Associated Press
CRAWFORD, Texas (Aug. 15) - A man fired a shotgun into the air as about 60 anti-war protesters held a religious service on the road to President Bush's ranch.
Sheriff's deputies and Secret Service agents in the area of the demonstration site Sunday rushed to the home of Larry Mattlage after the shots were fired but did not arrest him.
"I ain't threatening nobody, and I ain't pointing a gun at nobody," Mattlage said. "This is Texas."
_______

A few years ago on New Year's Eve, a friend of mine celebrating at an outdoor party was shot in the head by a bullet which fell from the sky. She was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, and thank God she survived.
Police said someone, somewhere, apparently fired a gun into the air to celebrate the New Year. They said the bullet could have come from as far as a mile or more away.
This also happened in Texas, but the police were unable to find the moron who fired the weapon that injured my friend, otherwise they would have arrested him.
Police in Crawford failed to arrest Bush's neighbor, or even cite him for recklessness.
Why?
Gee, what a mystery.
I wonder what the police in Crawford would have done if Mattlage had fired his shotgun in the sky as the Bush SUV limo was passing by?
No mystery there.

5 comments:

JimBob said...

I believe the appropriate comment is

YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

This particular part of speech was taught to me by some good ol' boys in Southern Arkansas way back when.

It usually precedes some drunken life-threatening stunt, such as driving a 4-wheeler over a cliff, diving head-first out of a 3rd story window into the hotel swimming pool, or firing a shotgun into the air around folks who hold different political beliefs than you do.

Apparently, only two of those three will get you arrested in Texas.

John Howard said...

Apparently, he shot into the air on his own property, so that's why he didn't get arrested.

Karen Zipdrive said...

John, I believe that if any gun owner has cause to fire a warning shot, he either has cause to open fire on what or whomever he perceives as an imminent threat, or he shouldn't be firing his weapon at all.
If one absolutely has a compelling reason to fire a warning shot, it should be fired into the ground or at an object like a tree that will stop the bullet.
Firing into the air tells us the shooter lacks the common sense and basic gun safety training to know that what goes up must come down.
Regardless of whose land he fired from, he was acting without regard for the potential consequences his bullying tactics could have had.
And let's not bullshit ourselves--the guy was trying to bully the protesters because they annoyed him, he was in no danger whatsoever.
The one thing we can all agree upon is, had he fired his weapon into the air as the Bush limo was whizzing by, he'd be in jail right now.

nobody's fool said...

Our local newscaster played the clip where Mattlage says, "This is Texas", and then said herself, "That about sums it up". We Floridians love it when some other dumbass makes his state look worse than ours...

And, since a bullet shot into the AIR can travel over a mile and come down into someone's skull [or child], it should matter whether or not Mattlage shot the fucking gun on his own property. Duh.

nobody's fool said...

Make that "should NOT" matter... gah.