Thugs with guns

[countrygirl12]

I guess it can happen anywhere. We had a hit and run three blocks away from our house. A forty eight year old lady from the neighborhood over decided to drive through our neighborhood while talking on her cellular phone. A ten year old boy could not stop, on his skateboard, and she hit him, flipped him onto her hood and he flew off the car taking her Lexis's rear view mirror off with his head. She never stopped. A neighbor told the police it was a white lexis and was able to provide the first three numbers of her license plate. Two days later they spotted her car, got the full license plate number and visited her house. She didn't answer at first and then denied everything, She said she had an appointment during that time but could not name her client. DNA on the car matched the little boy's.

Thing is if she had stopped when it happened she would most likely not have been charged with anything.  If he flew out in front of her car into the road on a skateboard then it was his fault not hers.  Talking on the cell phone is not illegal.  And irrelevant.   Texting is against the law but not talking at least where I live.  I know there are a couple states where it is.  No different than talking to a person in the car.

[countrygirl12]

I thank God every day, that I don't live in  the big city anymore. One of our neighbors , who is black says he is afraid  to even walk down the street when he goes back to see his mother in Chicago. He says if you happen to be on the street with the wrong color of shirt you can get shot. He is  trying so hard to get his family to move out here in the wide open spaces. Bu they wan t to be in a big city.  Yes  even here we have some  crime, but not compared to other places.

What difference does it make that he is black?  Chicago has a really high black population.  This comment just screams race bait.  It is to start an argument.  The color of his skin does not make a difference.  Nor does the color of your shirt.  Things are bad every where.  And yes there is a lot of hate between the races.  But it goes in every direction.  I know black people KNOW them who absolutely hate white people simply because they are white.  I also know whites who do not like blacks.  I don't know why.  The color of your skin makes no difference.  It is WHO you are and HOW YOU act and treat people that matters.  But it is foolish for one race to think they are treated poorly and the world is against them.

[sfreeman8]

There are so many hit and run accidents lately, especially in the cities. Don't people care anymore? The law in our state is pedestrians have the right of way. If they're in the crosswalk, we MUST stop and allow them to finish crossing.  I guess some drivers feel pedestrians don't have any rights and plow right through them.  It's those drivers that should either be forced to take a Driver's Ed course and take an intensive test at the end.

[gsdoss]

And this has nothing to do with gun control it doesn't stop them from getting guns

[plennis]

I just discovered this morning that a shooting had taken place in front of my house last week.  I never heard it myself (I was likely in another room sitting in front of a loud air conditioner with earbuds in my ears at the time), but after asking my wife - she recalled hearing fire crackers out in front of the house Tuesday around 11:00.


I came out to go to work today and found a full unspent round on the street curb by my back tire - it was in a silver shell casing.  I called the police and they were on the way.  I sat down on my front steps to wait - that is when I saw an empty brass shell casing on the sidewalk near our flower garden. A minute later, I saw another empty brass casing in the corner between our front steps and garage wall.  There are both less than ten feet from where I lay my head to sleep at night RIGHT NEXT to a window.  Just before the officers arrived, I found an empty silver casing on my car.  (I haven't been driving it recently because I live only a half mile from my office and like to walk in the summer if whether permits).


I go to post this on Facebook, and there I see that two hours ago a judge was shot in my hometown as he came to the courthouse this morning.


What the hell is wrong with people?!?

Just because someone shot a gun does not make them a thug.  I have shot a gun and never been arrested in my life.  I am not a thug.  Never been in any trouble other than getting pulled over for speeding.  There wasn't "a shooting" in front of your house.  There is nothing wrong with simply shooting a gun.  Not sure why you would call the police because you find a shell in your drive way and heard a "firecracker" a week earlier.

Btw firecrackers and guns sound a lot different.  Just sayin'

There were bullet casings on his lawn, in his flower beds at his bedroom window and on his car.  Unless they actually killed someone do you think it is ok to shoot at someones home?  It does not make them a thug, just an idiot who was lucky nothing worse had happened.  I own guns too, but that does not make it ok to shoot them off anywhere at anytime.  That kind of thinking and the above careless actions is why so many people want guns taken away from everyone. Also in some areas if you are wearing the wrong colors in the wrong area you are a target.

[adriarobi]

Gun laws do not keep bad guys from getting guns. They are always available if they want them.

I thought I heard the judge was able to shoot the guy who shot him, wounding him, and a policeman finished the shooter off.

Good people want the guns for self-defense etc. They have to jump through a lot of hoops (red tape) to get them. Topsy-turvey.

Everything is upside-down any more.

 

[michael22000]

wow scary world we live in 

[patti4me]

Even in the small town we live in there is way too much violence!  We don't take the newspaper anymore but are still always hearing about shootings, robberies, domestic abuse and other violent crimes.  I try not to leave my house after dark especially.  We own guns and have basically all our adult lives.  I love to target practice even though we don't get to do that too often anymore.  I actually sleep with a pistol under my pillow.  We have some pretty rowdy neighbors in our area.  I don't see anything wrong with law-abiding citizens having guns;  its the criminal and thugs with guns that scare me.

[UGetPaid]

Just because someone shot a gun does not make them a thug.  I have shot a gun and never been arrested in my life.  I am not a thug.  Never been in any trouble other than getting pulled over for speeding.  There wasn't "a shooting" in front of your house.  There is nothing wrong with simply shooting a gun.  Not sure why you would call the police because you find a shell in your drive way and heard a "firecracker" a week earlier.

Btw firecrackers and guns sound a lot different.  Just sayin'

Okay, you touched a nerve, so this is gonna be a long one...


Countrygirl12, I have chosen to give you a pass in the past with some of your insensitive and condescending remarks toward other posters, but this time I am going to let you know that you are dead wrong. By the grace of God, nobody was actually hit with any bullets in this incident, so if I had to make one alteration to my original post, I would maybe choose to characterize this incident as shots fired instead of as a shooting. So if you want to get hyper-technical, no there was not “a shooting” in front of my house, but at least one and more than likely two or more guns “were fired” in front of my house. I’m not sure if those semantics are the reason you felt it necessary to declare that there wasn’t “a shooting” in front of my house, but I take great offense at your condescending remarks and incorrect assumptions. 


Like you, I have shot many guns in my lifetime. I grew up around them. I do not consider myself a thug for shooting a gun, nor do I consider you to be a thug for shooting a gun. The difference between me and a thug (and I hope to God between YOU and a thug), is that I never shot a gun in a densely populated residential neighborhood.  My experience with guns have all been either at the shooting range or in a hunting setting – both legal and safe.  (Just FYI, there is no shooting range in the twenty foot radius around my house and I do not live in a designated hunting area).  There are other circumstances where it is perfectly legal to discharge a firearm, but I promise you that none of those apply in this particular circumstance either.


To get to your ‘thug’ point (which I confess I still do not quite understand what your point is or where your self-righteousness comes from) the mere act of shooting a gun doesn’t make someone a thug and I made no such argument.  So your opening comments assume a position that I do not even espouse. But shooting a gun in a residential neighborhood where the houses are right on top of each other with dozens of families and children living there absolutely and unquestionably makes someone a thug.  I’m not sure what your beef is with me calling these unidentified individuals thugs (I call it like I see it and there is no conceivable argument to be made to suggest that they are not thugs) or why you felt it was somehow an attack on anyone who has ever shot a gun before (I made no such sweeping stereotypical generalization). I also fail to see what your own criminal or driving record adds to the thug designation of these individuals. 


Let me lay it out for you again, with maybe a little more clarity. I went out Monday morning and discovered a fully intact bullet laying next to my car on the street. I had not heard any gunshots or firecrackers in my neighborhood for at least several weeks prior to this discovery.  I did not (as you assume) call the police because I found a shell in my driveway and heard a ‘firecracker’ a week earlier.  I called the police because I found an intact bullet in front of my house – something that clearly had absolutely no business being there.


You say you aren’t sure why I would call the police.  My response to you is, Why in the hell wouldn’t I call the police? Are you honestly saying in these circumstances you wouldn’t call the police yourself?  Are you honestly suggesting that I overreacted and should have just ignored what I found right next to where I sleep every single night of my life and where I hope and pray to wake up the next morning without any gunshot wounds to my person? (I would be happy to post photos of what I found, where I found it, and show the scene’s proximity to my bed and window for perspective). Am I really that unreasonable in my expectation of keeping my family safe in and around the house and property that I own?  If so, then shame on me! 


Let me just run down the list again.  I walk outside to find a fully intact bullet on the street next to my car about 10 or 15 feet from where I sleep.  It was a copper colored bullet inside a silver shell casing.  I then find an empty brass shell casing about 5 feet away from my house.  I then find a second empty brass shell even closer to my house right next to the front steps.  Finally, I find an empty silver shell on the hood of my car.  I did not have the capability to run forensic tests on the shell casings right there in my house and I usually leave that sort of thing up to the police anyway (gee, I’ve just come up with another reason to call them), but based on the fact that they were different colors, I concluded that they must have come from at least two different discharged weapons – most likely fired at each other. 


Ultimately that doesn’t really matter.  At least three rounds were discharged right next to my house (or alternatively, some practical jokester staged the scene for me to find and left one additional bullet behind for good measure).  Given those details, exactly how long should I struggle with the decision of whether or not I should inconvenience the police with a telephone call?  I am asking you, countrygirl12, if you are seriously saying that I overreacted in this circumstance?  And to think that I had the nerve to refer to these unidentified individuals on an Internet forum as …  “thugs”! OMG!  Where do I get off when I don’t know anything else about them? Why they might just be God-fearing upstanding members of my community and I have so unfairly disparaged them! I should feel so ashamed.  (News bulletin… I feel no shame for my name calling).  Incidentally, my house location also happens to be the bus stop for a few dozen elementary school children. So it probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to ignore the bullet and empty shell casings with school coming back into session a few days later.


Just to be clear, I called the police after finding the bullet and only found the other three empty shell casings while I was waiting for the police to arrive.  Does that make a difference – that I called the police only after finding a single bullet?  Pun intended: did I jump the gun there?


Your remark about guns and firecrackers sounding different was another unnecessary pot shot. Put aside for the moment that hundreds, if not thousands, of witnesses to shootings across the country routinely describe what they heard to TV and news reporters as what sounded like firecrackers.  In this situation, I personally did not hear anything (or if I did, it was so routine that it just blended into the background noise).  At the time, I was in another room of the house, with a rather loud window air conditioner running right behind my recliner chair, and I had earbuds in my ears listening to the radio. I did not independently recall hearing gunshots or firecrackers.  My wife, who was asleep at the time of the actual incident, thought that she heard firecrackers, as did my daughter who sleeps in another room in the house farther away. So if it makes you feel more superior and better about yourself for pointing out to me that my wife and daughter are incapable of telling the difference between two different gun powder induced explosions while being woken from a deep sleep by those explosions, then by God you should be quite proud of yourself and your excellent sense of hearing.  (Just curious though how often you have been startled awake by a noise and were not immediately able to identify it.)


Countrygirl12, I really don’t understand the motivation behind your consistently condescending and judgmental remarks here.  You want to scold/lecture me about calling the police without cause and for calling someone who shot a gun in front of my house a thug.  Then one comment later you feel the need to point out that talking on a cell phone while driving is not illegal, but that texting while driving is…


How is it that in the same thread you can debate over whether texting vs. talking while driving is illegal or not, but also seem to argue that shooting a gun in a residential neighborhood which I promise you is illegal at least in my state is not, at minimum, an act of thuggery?


Perhaps I am just overly sensitive upon making this discovery and realizing that those bullets could have very easily killed or severely injured me or my wife if the circumstances had been just slightly different (and then soon after learning of the attempt upon the life of a judge in my hometown by some other thug with zero regard for innocent lives). But even so, countrygirl12, your remarks were idiotic, insensitive, and complete and total bullspit. 


Just sayin’
 

[davissy]

Oh no, that sounds so scary!  I'm glad you and your family are all safe!

I think you did the right thing in calling the police when you found those shell castings.  No one should be shooting their guns so close to a residence.  I've heard horror stories where children (playing in their home) were shot by stray bullets from outside.  I hope, with these additional evidence you provided, the police can find the shooter soon.

[hitch0403]

Also isnt there a saying today,if you see something,say something?

Maybe most of the time its a false alarm...but even if it was worth it once.

[dogsleash]

poor parenting and kids feeling they have the right to do what they want . 

[UGetPaid]

poor parenting and kids feeling they have the right to do what they want . 

You can say that again...

[bshee58]

Dang!!!! Violence is every where, you have to be careful in your own home now, bullets have a way of finding you, even when you're not looking for it. I hear shots all the time, and its like in front of my house across from a famous  restaurant, the parking lot be empty, but still I hear shots, instead of talking out situations, people think its okay to add a gun in the mix, it makes family have one less member because of it, THINK PEOPLE BEFORE reaching for a deadly WEAPON.

[bigfoot951]

Unfortunately that is the world we are living in now a days.  I don't know what type of area you live in, but it really doesn't matter.  This type of thing could happen anywhere these days.  It's sad and it is scary.  I'm just glad that you and your wife are ok.