Irresponsible Gun Owner Link Round-Up 3.25.15

On a regular basis, individuals across the U.S. demonstrate that they are not responsible gun owners. Oh, they may have passed a background check and obtained a license and/or a permit, but have they demonstrated-prior to owning a gun-that they aren’t an aggressive individual with a hair-trigger temper? Have they shown knowledge of how to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence? Probably not, because there are no such requirements for owning a gun or obtaining a license. Which is a shame because there are many people who should never be allowed to own a gun. People like this guy, who (in January 2014) threatened a pizza delivery driver because he was upset at the service and the long wait time for his order:

Police arrested an Anchorage man after he threatened a pizza delivery driver with a gun early Thursday morning in the Riviera Terrace Mobile Home Park, according to Anchorage police.

The driver was delivering pizza to a home at the 3300 block of Boniface Parkway around 6 a.m. where a few occupants, including Keng Lor, 23, were waiting inside, said Jennifer Castro, police spokeswoman.

“It was reported to us that they were upset with the service and how long the delivery was taking,” Castro said.

Lor threatened the driver with a gun when he reached the door, Castro said. The driver was able to get away without injury, she said.

The driver called police dispatch around 6:15 a.m., Castro said. Police arrested Lor and took him to Anchorage Jail. He faces two third-degree assault charges and one count of misconduct involving weapons in the fourth degree.

Or this guy, who threatened an 18-year-old over a parking spot in September 2014:

Madison police were sent to the area of Atwood Avenue and Winnebago Street around 4:24 p.m. for a report of a man threatening another man with a gun, according to a release.

The 18-year-old victim told police he confronted Joseph P. Piscitello, 38, of Madison, because his car was parked in an illegal parking spot, police said. Piscitello took offense, so he allegedly took a loaded handgun from his truck and threatened the 18-year-old with it.

Piscitello left the area, but then decided to come back, according to the release. As he was returning to the scene, he hit an uninvolved vehicle, but did not injure the driver.

Police found the loaded gun in the trunk of Piscitello’s vehicle.

Piscitello was arrested on tentative charges of disorderly conduct while armed, and was also cited for a traffic violation due to the crash.

Or this guy, who shot a 15-year-old (in January 2015) because the teen threw snowballs at his car:

A central Pennsylvania man is under arrest after police say he brought a gun to a snowball fight.

York police say Jerquan Shaquille Dickson shot a 15-year-old boy in the right arm and left thigh Saturday after the teenager allegedly threw snowballs at his car.

The 15-year-old was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Dickson is charged with felony aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person. The 22-year-old is free on $150,000 bail. Information on his lawyer wasn’t immediately available.

Or this guy (a shoe-in for Father of the Year) who was arrested Monday for shooting his son in the ass during a fight over orange juice:

Eldridge Dukes, 58, faces charges of attempted manslaughter and illegal use of a weapon, according to police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The incident occurred early Sunday after the father and son began arguing about the lack of orange juice at their home, according to Baton Rouge police spokesman Corporal Don Coppola.

He said the son damaged the home and broke a porcelain vase.

Arming himself with a handgun, the father chased his son out the front door. He fired several shots, striking the teenager once in his buttocks, Coppola said.

The son was taken to a hospital with injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening.

Or this Harris County, TX resident who shot a woman in the head after she honked at him on the freeway:

Authorities are searching for a man in a white SUV who allegedly shot a woman on a Texas freeway Friday after she honked at him, reports CBS affiliate KHOU.

A spokesman for the Harris County Pct. 4 Constable’s Office said the shooting happened shortly after 7 a.m. on the North Freeway near W. Richey Road in Harris County.

The victim, a 28-year-old female, reportedly told officers she honked at a white SUV while trying to get on the freeway to go to work. She and the SUV’s driver yelled at each other before the SUV cut her off and the driver opened fire, according to the station.

A bullet reportedly struck the woman in the back of her neck. Some of the bullet fragments went into her head as well, authorities said, according to the station.

The SUV driver reportedly fled the scene as the victim called 911.

If you think men are the only ones who use firearms recklessly, think again. Women do it too. Take this woman for instance:

Mobile police received a phone call at about 9:30 a.m. reporting that a person had been shot. The victim said his great aunt, Ira Belle Peterson, shot him once in the foot during an argument about money, according to Mobile Police Department spokesman Terence Perkins.

Perkins said the woman and her grand nephew lived together. Peterson had accused the boy of stealing $20 from her and that’s when she decided to shoot him in the foot.

Here’s a woman so annoyed at the amount of television her children watch that she took her frustrations out on the television:

Police said 40-year-old Jennifer Ullery told them she was upset by how much TV her three kids – ages 15, 11, and 6 – had been watching and took out her frustration by firing multiple rounds at the screen.

“A music video by Primus set Mom off and she opened fire,” said Andrews Doles, deputy chief of Algonquin police. “Mom didn’t say anything, she just walked into the room and started shooting the TV.”

The children were sitting on a couch in front of the TV when their mother opened fire with a Ruger .22 long rifle, police said.

In another example of irresponsible use of a firearm, a Tennessee woman was arrested last year for going on a shooting spree in a suburban Chattanooga neighborhood:

A middle-aged Tennessee woman is under arrest after she drove around a suburban Chattanooga neighborhood, inexplicably shooting at people and vehicles. Julia Shields, 45, has been arrested and faces multiple felony charges, after she terrorized her neighborhood on Friday. Shields faces three counts of attempted murder and seven counts of aggravated assault. She also faces charges for reckless endangerment, evading arrest, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

The woman fired shots randomly at vehicles and continued to aim her gun at vehicles even while she was being chased by police. She also pointed her firearm at police officers, but she was eventually arrested and taken alive.

Shields resides in the Hixson neighborhood in the North part of Chattanooga. The shootings took place in the same area. Hixson is a predominately white, upper middle-class neighborhood, where the household median income is well above the state average.

I doubt she’d be alive if she were a black woman.

Next up is a story that makes me want to facepalm and headdesk simultaneously. Back in early 2014, a woman in Grand Rapids, MI fired a gun in the drive through window at McDonald’s because her order was wrong:

Shaneka Monique Torres, 29, was arraigned in Grand Rapids District Court Monday afternoon on charges of carrying a concealed weapon, discharge of a firearm in or at a building and felony firearms.

Torres and another woman placed an order at the drive-thru window at the business located near 28th Street and Madison Avenue SE on Sunday. The workers got the order wrong, police said, and the customers were told their next meal would be free.

So the women returned to the restaurant’s drive-thru window around 3 a.m. Monday and ordered again. Torres was the passenger in the vehicle, and was flirting with the employee in the first drive-thru window. police said. She left that person her phone number in hopes he would call her later.

Torres and the other woman drove up to the second drive-thru window to get their order, which was wrong, police said.

Torres pulled out a gun, reached across the driver and fired one shot through the closed car window and drive-thru window, police told 24 Hour News 8.

The bullet went through the other side of the building, but did not hit anybody. Workers didn’t realize what had happened. They thought a coffee pot had exploded.

The customers drove away and went to Torres’ house, where she was dropped off.

Police tracked down the shooter at her home because she left her cellphone number with the drive-thru worker.

Police arrested Torres at her home.

Rounding out this collection of stories involving reckless gun owners is a tale from July 2014. I can’t believe I’m about to type this, but apparently a 58-year-old woman shot her lover because he didn’t ejaculate enough:

Sadie Bell was convicted in April of assault with intent to do great bodily harm for shooting her boyfriend, Edward Lee, in the stomach in January of 2013 — but she’s now been granted bond pending an appeal.

According to Chief Assistant Prosecutor Paul Walton, Bell admitted she had sex with Lee at her apartment, then shot him over his poor performance. She also accused Lee of cheating.

“The underlying facts in this are a little bizarre,” Walton told WWJ’s Sandra McNeil, “in that the defendant in this case was having a 15 year affair with the victim, Mr. Lee.

“She was upset with him,” Walton said, “after a sexual act that she felt he wasn’t performing adequately and accused him then of having an affair, and then took out a gun and shot him.”

Walton said Bell made a “very graphic”, detailed statement to police explaining why she shot her lover.

“She stated that she knew he was having an affair because he wasn’t producing enough ejaculate,” Walton explained. “She also said to the police some very graphic things about how she expected him to perform, she was a cheap date, she liked sex, she expected him to be able to do what he’s promised; and she said, in essence, to quote her, she was pissed off, so she shot him.”

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Irresponsible Gun Owner Link Round-Up 3.25.15
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