Kid Shot My House With Pellet Gun

moojersey said:

Just wanted some opinions on what you much more experienced folks would have done. Short version is that apparently this little bugger six year old behind me got a hold of a pellet gun and shot at my house. Thankfully my window was open so the glass was not broken. Damaged the window screen and pellet lodged into my drywall. My brother was standing about 6 inches from where the pellet impacted, which leads me to believe this little bugger was aiming at him.

Now they do shoot it regularly behind me, as I can hear it most nice days. I obviously have no problem with them doing that. My gripe is that an unsupervised 6 year old shot my house, could have seriously injured my brother, and damaged my property. Cecil County Sheriffs insisted that I should not try to press any charges as there was really nothing to the situation, and little would become of it. Just an honest accident. Parents threw me a $20 for spackle and a screen repair kit. Thoughts?

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GENTS!

Remember the days of Mayberry common sense and community that we all long for. The Parents made it right but perhaps this could be an opportunty to make an ally instead of an enemy.

REQIRE dad and son go with you to the range. "All will be forgiven if you come with me for a day of shooting and firearms safety."
TEACH both dad and son the rules of firearms safety on a .22.
If you don't - let me do it. I'll provide rifle and ammo.

Today's children are no more evil than we were as children. What has changed is the way society treats them and deals with issues like this. Rememer it takes a community.

If a six year old has access to a pellet gun, he might have access to a high power rifle. You got off light and so did that brat and his family. Would not cut them any slack; report every incident to law enforcement and snuff these stupid acts now.

Similar incident happened to a friend in Bowie a few years ago when pellets hit the window beside his wife who was preparing a meal. Police were notified, spoke with the home owner, from which the pellets were discharged, and no further action taken by anyone. No further incidents, but that perp will pay dearly should it happen again.

Those of you who poo poo this as a minor incident fail to recognize the seriousness of such an act.

No way a six year old should be touching any firearm unsupervised.

Lew--Ranger63

Bart_man said:

GENTS!

Remember the days of Mayberry common sense and community that we all long for. The Parents made it right but perhaps this could be an opportunty to make an ally instead of an enemy.

REQIRE dad and son go with you to the range. "All will be forgiven if you come with me for a day of shooting and firearms safety."
TEACH both dad and son the rules of firearms safety on a .22.
If you don't - let me do it. I'll provide rifle and ammo.

Today's children are no more evil than we were as children. What has changed is the way society treats them and deals with issues like this. Rememer it takes a community.

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I like the idea of trying to be a friendly neighbor and offer to go shooting. It'll give you a sense of security knowing they know how to handle firearms safely. And if they don't you can teach them.

After all, they are your neighbors and you don't want to live next to someone you hate.

Too young and green to be outside with a air gun. Would talk too the father and see if we can get some supervision and maybe set up a backstop for the kid.

Oddly enough, similar situation happened with me and my dad and my grandmother of all people. The grandparents decided to make a visit to a house we were staying at for vacation. Had some paintball markers show up that morning on a stop sign and around the yard (it was in a beach community of houses so everything was pretty close together) but we both wrote it off to some stupid people during the night. Well as my grand parents get there, no joke, i see a few markers (3-4) drop by my grandma's feet and around the car they were getting out of. No noise of gun shots or anything and I didn't see anyone in the street but still was very perturbed by the fact that someone had ***** shot at my grandparents....

Anyways we shuffle them inside and get to a little detective work with our handy telescopic camera out of a attic window. Turns out those damn kids were on a roof and still shooting off shots towards our cars/house as well as others. We got a few good pics and decided to walk over to the house and are greeted by some shady looking parent who we tell their kids are shooting a paintball gun from the roof at us. They are very apologetic, say it won't happen again, and we leave without telling them about the pics we took.

Anyways, grandparents are leaving and what happens.... they hit my grandma with a ricochet in the leg. Now I was a bit pissed so we called the local cops. She comes by, we tell her the situation and which house to go to and she goes a knocking. Comes back 5 min later stating the parents denied the fact that there was a paintball gun and their kids wouldn't do something like that. Well she (Lady cop) was very surprised to see our nice clear pic of those kids with a gun on their roof and we lent her our camera to go back.

She goes back, and like any cop that doesn't like getting lied to, arrests the 17 year old kid and berates the parents. I am not one to promote this kinda thing but if you decide to purposefully shoot at anyone with anything and after a warning do it again, you get whats coming to you.

relco86 said:

She goes back, and like any cop that doesn't like getting lied to, arrests the 17 year old kid and berates the parents. I am not one to promote this kinda thing but if you decide to purposefully shoot at anyone with anything and after a warning do it again, you get whats coming to you.

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It's sad that after trying to talk to the parents the police have to enforce civility by arresting kids. You may want to consider a civil suit against the parents also. You won't get much, or anything but at least a judgement will show up on their credit report and their name in MD Case Search will show them as a defendant.

$20 would not cover the screen repair.

Phil I Am said:

$20 would not cover the screen repair.

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sure it would if you DIY.

Those that want to escalate this to legal action etc... why not pass more laws restricting air guns?


Sheesh. Stuff happens and the parents paid for the damages. It was a six year old.