- Messages
- 6,244
- Reactions
- 7,103
Texas Man Charged With Shooting Gun At Charging Bear
BY Herschel Smith
19 hours, 44 minutes ago
<broken link removed> :
WEST GLACIER, Mont. (AP) — A 57-year-old Texas man faces a federal misdemeanor charge of discharging a firearm in a national park after he reported shooting a charging bear with his .357 revolver.
Brian R. Muphy's attorney is scheduled to plead not guilty on Murphy's behalf during a court hearing in West Glacier on Friday. Murphy is scheduled to appear via video.
Charging documents say Murphy was hiking on the Mount Brown Lookout Trail on July 26 when a grizzly bear charged him. He told rangers he discharged his bear spray and fired a shot when the bear continued toward him. The wounded bear fled and could not be located.
It is legal to carry a gun in Glacier National Park but it is illegal to discharge it. A conviction carries a $500 fine.
By my count this is at least the second life that has been saved from a bear attack after legalization of firearms in National Parks, the first instance being mid-2010 in Denali.
Of course, Mr. Murphy is now charged with a crime. There are two problems that could be contributing, the first being that laws are now passed in broad sweeping language that apparently ignores guilty intent, or in other words, Congress is Eroding the Mens Rea Requirement in Federal Criminal Law.
The second problem that could be contributing is that the enforcement in question may be of a regulation rather than a law, which is made via federal register by armies of lawyers sitting inside the beltway who have been (unfortunately) empowered by Congress to do just that.
But the third problem is there is obviously a prosecutor who wants to take this case to court, otherwise he wouldn't have a scheduled court appearance and need a lawyer.
The law becomes absolute in contemporary America, regardless of the fact that a man's life was saved because he discharged a firearm. But it's absurd that Congress would have passed a law allowing firearms in National Parks early in 2010, but then refused to allow people to use that firearm to defend their lives. Since it is absurd, it clearly wasn't the intent of Congress (or should not have been). Therefore, the prosecutor is likely to blame for the fact that Mr. Murphy has to defend himself in court for saving his own life.
BY Herschel Smith
19 hours, 44 minutes ago
<broken link removed> :
WEST GLACIER, Mont. (AP) — A 57-year-old Texas man faces a federal misdemeanor charge of discharging a firearm in a national park after he reported shooting a charging bear with his .357 revolver.
Brian R. Muphy's attorney is scheduled to plead not guilty on Murphy's behalf during a court hearing in West Glacier on Friday. Murphy is scheduled to appear via video.
Charging documents say Murphy was hiking on the Mount Brown Lookout Trail on July 26 when a grizzly bear charged him. He told rangers he discharged his bear spray and fired a shot when the bear continued toward him. The wounded bear fled and could not be located.
It is legal to carry a gun in Glacier National Park but it is illegal to discharge it. A conviction carries a $500 fine.
By my count this is at least the second life that has been saved from a bear attack after legalization of firearms in National Parks, the first instance being mid-2010 in Denali.
Of course, Mr. Murphy is now charged with a crime. There are two problems that could be contributing, the first being that laws are now passed in broad sweeping language that apparently ignores guilty intent, or in other words, Congress is Eroding the Mens Rea Requirement in Federal Criminal Law.
The second problem that could be contributing is that the enforcement in question may be of a regulation rather than a law, which is made via federal register by armies of lawyers sitting inside the beltway who have been (unfortunately) empowered by Congress to do just that.
But the third problem is there is obviously a prosecutor who wants to take this case to court, otherwise he wouldn't have a scheduled court appearance and need a lawyer.
The law becomes absolute in contemporary America, regardless of the fact that a man's life was saved because he discharged a firearm. But it's absurd that Congress would have passed a law allowing firearms in National Parks early in 2010, but then refused to allow people to use that firearm to defend their lives. Since it is absurd, it clearly wasn't the intent of Congress (or should not have been). Therefore, the prosecutor is likely to blame for the fact that Mr. Murphy has to defend himself in court for saving his own life.