Dove, Dogs, and Shotguns

The spokesman reported that a judge in Spokane, Washington ruled that a father is not allowed to give his 9-year-old a shotgun.

The court was involved due to a divorce between the boy’s parents. The mother filed for a restraining order on the shotgun, claiming the boy was too young and the father was not capable of supervising the child.

This was the third ruling in favor of the mother, after the first two were appealed by the father. He hasn’t decided whether or not to appeal the last ruling. The superior court judge, Sam Cozan, ruled that the father had to wait until his son was 12 and went through a hunter safety course. Click here for the full article.

First of all, I have a ten year old who I bought a shotgun for his birthday, so I think you already know my feelings on the ruling. My son has had a BB gun for four years and is practiced in gun safety. I’ll bet this kid was too. There is no law this ruling was based on. I thought a judge’s job was to uphold the law, not make it up. I’m planning to take my son dove hunting this year and this guy was probably going to do something to that affect also. Now, because of an ex-wife that probably just likes to waste this dad’s money, a judge has ordered him to wait three years before they can spend that quality time together. Ex-wives are known to cause problems when they are scorned but superior court judges get paid to interpret the law and decide right from wrong, not take away a father’s right to decide when to start their children shooting a shotgun. What’s next are judges going to rule that a kid can’t ride horses (at their dad’s house) because they might fall off and get hurt, I mean really. I think the father knows better than a bunch of lawyers whether his son can handle a shotgun.

Do you think the judge was within his rights in this ruling? Leave your comments below.

Field and stream also has some good comments on the story.

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