Shooting at crop duster

   / Shooting at crop duster #12  
THe article says he was convicted of a felony. Does that mean he can no longer own or posses a gun?

MoKelly

The short answer is "No. He can no longer legally own/possess a firearm or ammunition." According to federal law (chapter 44, title 18).

He can, however, petition the US Attorney Generals office to have rights restored. But the AG delegated that responsibility to the ATF which has been forbidden by congress to fund processing of those applications since 1992.
 
   / Shooting at crop duster #13  
Short answer is that no one has a right to shoot at an aircraft regardless of what it is doing. It should be charged as attempted murder rather than a slap on the wrist. All it would take is a couple pellet to the face to blind the pilot and no way could he land an aircraft when blinded. Many of the crop dusters have fabric covering the fuselage so that is little protection from even small shotgun pellets. This is a serious felony crime that should be punished to the full extent of the law.
 
   / Shooting at crop duster #14  
Short answer is that no one has a right to shoot at an aircraft regardless of what it is doing. It should be charged as attempted murder rather than a slap on the wrist. All it would take is a couple pellet to the face to blind the pilot and no way could he land an aircraft when blinded. Many of the crop dusters have fabric covering the fuselage so that is little protection from even small shotgun pellets. This is a serious felony crime that should be punished to the full extent of the law.

In this case, I believe that the "full extent of the law" was some where around 20 years. The fact that the guy got a few months probation, has to "explain" via a news paper add, and has to develop some content for "young hunters" classes indicates that there were some extenuating circumstances.

If a crop duster were threatening my life, the life of my children, or my livestock with over spray, or was otherwise causing damage to my property, wouldn't I have a right to defend myself? Maybe I've been dealing with the same crap year after year, and all complaints and calls to law enforcement have been met with "quit wasting our time with you stupid airplane complaints." Maybe my law suit from three years ago was lost because the hundreds of thousands of acres of corn grown in my county brings in more revenue than my two dozen Rhode Island reds do, and my self-prepared case was no match for the $500/hour lawyers that the Crop Dusters Association provided for the pilot.

Granted, opening fire is a pretty drastic response, and you would HAVE to know there would be consequences. But there's more to the story than I've been able to glean from the assorted internet articles.

I was an Army pilot for a quarter-century. I can tell you that no one gives a crap about stampeded cattle, terrorized chickens, or innocent school children rattled out of their beds at two in the morning. Noise and encroachment complaints are so frequent, and often so frivolous that it all just gets lost in the background noise (no pun intended). It's not until someone takes a shot at you that you take their complaints seriously, and a three-mile no-fly-zone pops up around their property (and they probably go to jail). Heck - we were made to have more consideration for the villagers of Iraq and Afghanistan than here in the US.

Got to consider all the angles.
 
   / Shooting at crop duster #15  
THe article says he was convicted of a felony. Does that mean he can no longer own or posses a gun?

MoKelly

Yes, unless he can get it overturned or his record cleared after serving that minor slap on the wrist he got.

Harry K
 
   / Shooting at crop duster #16  
When military helicopters fly over my place, I stand at attention and salute as they pass by. My flag flies daily for all sacrificing Americans. But if a crop duster buzzed my place more than once, he'd probably get a load of shot also. IIRC, the first air plane to be brought down in American history, happened in Kansas ....(a visit at the National Aerospace Museum in Washington).

Cheers,
Mike
 
   / Shooting at crop duster #17  
Here is the original story from when the incident happened.

"At about 10:45 a.m. Aug. 24, a pilot with Ken-Spraying LLC, said he was spraying from his crop duster when someone wielding a shotgun was waving at him and "did not appear to be happy."

"Lewis told deputies that his neighbor brought his children into Lewis' home, because the neighbor was frightened by how close the crop duster was flying to the ground."


Man Accused of Shooting At Crop Duster
 
   / Shooting at crop duster #18  
Here is the original story from when the incident happened.

"At about 10:45 a.m. Aug. 24, a pilot with Ken-Spraying LLC, said he was spraying from his crop duster when someone wielding a shotgun was waving at him and "did not appear to be happy."

"Lewis told deputies that his neighbor brought his children into Lewis' home, because the neighbor was frightened by how close the crop duster was flying to the ground."


Man Accused of Shooting At Crop Duster
It is impossible for me to believe that someone would be afraid of a crop duster flying close to the ground. It isn't like its new technology that no one has ever seen. Most aerial crop sprayers (no one uses dust anymore) around Lousisiana, Ark, Miss. fly at least 20 feet in the air because they get better spray penetration from the wing tip vortex's than they do when flying right on the ground. I watched some planes down in south Texas and if they didn't come up at the end of the field with some of the plants hanging on their wheels, the farmers got mad. I guess it is all perspective and of course wind drift has some effects which in S. Texas it blows pretty hard most of the time.
Not much of any spray is going to adversely affect a person from minor contact from drift. THe EPA has restricted most chemicals so badly that they are barely able to kill an insect when covered completely in the 100% pure ingredients. Simply washing up will take care of it if you do happen to get something on you.
As for damages, we never had any problems with fish kills etc from aerial applicators when I lived on the farm growning up, even if they were spraying our own fields. We would warn the pilot about our catfish pond and if he sprayed it and we had a kill, they paid. Just had to tell them and they would pay up promptly. I guess frivolous lawsuits have spoiled that .
 
   / Shooting at crop duster #19  
We have a guy who flies overhead in one of those parachutes with a motor on it, no idea what they are called. It is very annoying, he flies just over the tree tops and buzzes around looking at everything. I wonder what the law is regarding those things.

Wes
 
   / Shooting at crop duster #20  
I think this was just an outburst caused by all the property rights attacks in the last few years, privacy rights and intrusion into our lives. The guy wasn't really shorting at a crop dusting aircraft as much as he was making a statement we have had enough. HS
 

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