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Maryland is like a lot of states, where one city, Baltimore, is a cesspool of crime and villainy; and the rest of the state is a peaceful, pleasant place to live.

- Jim

The Annoyed Man wrote:For all I know, Maryland's laws may be more restrictive than ours ...

Maryland is one of the worst states for handgun ownership and carrying. The Bradys rank Maryland the 5th best: http://www.stategunlaws.org/viewstate.php?st=MD" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe the guy thought it was legal to carry a handgun in Texas. A lot of people who have never been here think that we all wear cowboy boots and six-shooters.

Maybe he just thought he could get away with carrying illegally.

Only he knows, unless someone here can read minds.

- Jim

Liberty wrote:Is it just me or doesn't this arrest sound fishy?

Not to me.

Assuming that the story is correct, the guy was committing the offense of UCW and admitted to doing it regularly. That will get someone arrested pretty much everywhere in Texas.

Also, as I wrote earlier, we don't know how the guy was behaving. Maybe the police thought he needed to cool down.

The police don't have a lot of options. All they can do it talk to you, arrest you, or let you go.

Assuming the man fired the warning shot into the ground.

We don't know where he fired the shot.

It likely did not cause damage, or he would have been charged with disorderly or deadly conduct.

I wonder if the dog's owner was cited? The owner that let the dog run loose is the real criminal ans is the one that should have been arrested.

The dog broke through a fence. If the dog did not have a history of that kind of attack, I don't see how it's the owner's fault.

- Jim

mr.72 wrote:2. why would any person in their right mind charge at an armed man yelling threats, especially if that armed man had just fired a "warning shot"?

The man who attacked Mr. Fish, Grant Kuenzli, was arguably not in his right mind and hadn't been for decades.

http://www.haroldfishdefense.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are many hypotheticals in that case. What if Mr. Fish had been carrying pepper spray or some other non-lethal defense against dogs? I don't think Kuenzli's reactions would be predictable, regardless of what happened.

Morgan wrote:I'm curious why you'd fire a warning shot AT ALL for a dog. The dog doesn't know what a gun shot [is].

Some animals are frightened by gunshots. However, my experience is that most are not. I would think a fighting dog in attack mode would not be frightened. It seems this one wasn't.

- Jim

I would have to think the guy talked too much.

I don't remember the details of the Harold Fish case, but he was found guilty of homicide, not a weapons violation.

It is not common to charge people with a weapons violation after a self-defense shooting, unless the person is a felon. I can't say why this guy was charged. Maybe the police had a reason for thinking that he should be arrested and given time to calm down.

We'll probably never hear how it comes out in the end.

- Jim

TheArmedFarmer wrote:That's encouraging. I hope you are right.

Misdemeanors almost never go to jury trials, because most defendants can't afford the legal fees. The DA's office probably will just want to dispose of a minor case like this quickly.

Anyone know what the authorities' attitudes are like in Bell County?

I think it would be very unlikely for 12 members of a jury to find a law unconstitutional. That is not what the defendant would be arguing. In this case, the jury would be charged with deciding whether the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant "intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly" violated PC 46.02.

- Jim

He might be able to squeak out of it with probation and deferred adjudication. They generally don't convict on first offenses when no harm is done.

- Jim

On Tuesday, January 6, a Killeen man was walking his dog when a "pit bull" broke through a fence and attacked his dog. The man fired a warning shot and then fatally shot the attacking dog.

He was charged with unlawful carry (no CHL) and discharging a firearm within city limits.

He said he had recently moved to Texas from Maryland and didn't know he needed a CHL to carry a handgun.

A spokesman said the problem was the warning shot. Shooting the dog was justified by necessity.

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=30566" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim