A man in Colorado allegedly shot his adult son dead over the weekend after mistaking him for an intruder, authorities say.
Frank Leo Huner Jr., 58, faces a second-degree murder charge over the death of his 33-year-old son Nicholas Huner at his Sedalia home on Saturday night.
Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said via a statement on its website that Huner Jr. called dispatchers shortly after 10:15 p.m. to say “he had just fatally shot what he believed to be an intruder breaking into his home.”
“During the call, Frank Huner identified the intruder as his adult son,” the statement added. On Sunday, Douglas County Coroner Jill Romain confirmed Nicholas Huner as being the fatal victim of a gunshot wound.
I am always struck by the fact that most of these these people purchase a gun to keep their families safe, and in so many cases it ends up costing one of their family members their lives.
Just why does somebody fire blindly without first seeing whose life they are trying to take?
How is that EVER a good idea?
Whew I thought you were going to say Melania shoots and kills intruder, who turns out to be her husband.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't that be a turn of events? First American President to be assassinated by his third wife. Might this be a Communist plot?
DeleteWhat if....
ReplyDeleteWhat if the father listened to the Jones and NRA. What if the father believed (as he was told) that 'others' were coming for him and all he owned. What if...
The look in the fathers eyes haunts me. There is nothing human justice can do to him that he is not already doing to himself.
What a tragedy on so many levels
"...The look in the fathers eyes haunts me. There is nothing human justice can do to him that he is not already doing to himself. "
DeleteI have to disagree with you somewhat. That argument was attempted by the lawyer for the man who was tried first under Florida's then new child safety seat law. The child was killed because the man had NOT gotten a safety seat even though a full 6 months delay was put in place once the law was passed to allow people time to buy one.
The lawyer tried to tell the judge a guilty verdict would do no good because the father was already punishing himself enough.
The judge asked the lawyer if the CHILD needed to die to let the father learn and sentenced him to prison.
That led to a huge increase in the number of safety seats sold and used and far more children living through accidents.
I won't hold my breath over the same thing happening in this case, but it certainly adds to what Gryphen said: Many FAMILY members are hurt due to the excess number of firearms. MAYBE people will begin to LISTEN when told that and the NRA and gun nuts will start to lose the argument. One can but hope.
Leland, I second your hope and add a desire for minds and hearts to open in acceptance of reality as it is, and not as the Dominionists and patriarchs wish it to be.
DeleteI have relatives who walk the Dominionist way. It's ALL they have. Take away their faith, there is nothing. While they 'choose' to believe the poison spread by the right wing, what if, like me*, they were born this way?
No easy answers. Also, in case I was not clear, the father deserves the full extent of human justice. Like the parade of nobles to the guillotine, gun violence will end when the voices of the many silence the few who have the money.
* I am a Quantum Activist, Empath, and Witch. I tried to deny myself by 'fitting in' for over 30 years. With therapy (lots of it) I am finally comfortable with me. While in therapy I learned Life Skills, something Dominionists believe are not necessary.
Or, he meant to kill his son and figured that this was the best way to get away with it.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I have a difficult time believing anything that these nutjobs say without supportive evidence.
Sedalia is between Denver and Colorado Springs, which is a Mecca for right wing evangelicals including Ted Haggard (of male prostitute scandal fame). It's also the headquarters for Focus on the Family and numerous other evangelical churches.
ReplyDeleteIt's very possible, as Grey One suggests above, that Huner was a right wing conservative, frightened that the dark-skinned librul thugs were attacking his hearth and home.
What a tragedy that his son had to lose his life because of his father's fear.
What fear we have allowed ourselves to live in. Now, that fear has us all in a pickle with a sick old man running our country.
ReplyDeleteOne thing: people are told NOT to wait until they see the face of an intruder - because if they see their faces, those people/I traders all of a sudden become HUMAN, and then the shooters often cannot shoot anymore.
ReplyDeleteI believe that is why wars nowadays are so easy - you don't see your opponent face to face anymore. You cannot equate that person with being a man/husband/brother/father or woman/mother/sister/wife. Your opponent is an 'object', not a human being.
I don't know what gun course you have taken,but this is not true.You always make sure of your target.The problem is that since everyone is encouraged to have guns,the mental midget pea brained Trump supporter types don't take courses,don't pay attention to any information on the proper use and storing of guns,and believe they are smarter than everyone else and will never have these things happen to them.Case in point,the Repubs blocking a law meant to keep people with mental conditions from owning guns.
Delete10:34, the one that really gets me is the one where a BLIND person was allowed to get a permit to carry! A BLIND PERSON!
DeleteI can't envision a SINGLE circumstance under which it was even REMOTELY possible for that person to verify his target! Or even hit his target. What if there was another person - like a cop or another family member BEHIND the "intruder"?
This is one reason I always refuse my husbands offer to leave a pistol for protection when he's gone. I prefer to have my large German shepherd alert and protect me.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, 8:28! There are two things that are hated more than a firearm to a normal burglar: Light and noise! A good set of automatic motion lights provides the first at night and a well trained dog provides the second.
DeleteAs for the intruder even getting in, I have yucca plants under EVERY window in my house. BIG ones.
I have VERY strong steel doors that are solidly mounted into the cement blocks that make up my house. And my dead bolts have EXTREMELY long bolts. They go much farther into the walls than the typical 1 inch bolt.
Good luck NOT waking the neighborhood if you try to force my doors!
ot:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/oh-girl-no-twitter-whips-up-mockery-shtstorm-when-lindsay-lohan-says-to-stop-bullying-trump/
Maybe these people will begin to take care of their weapons when the careless owners allow their weapons to be used to kill others. Funny how a charge of manslaughter will focus one's attention on the problem at hand.
ReplyDeleteHold on folks. I'm as much pro-gun control as anyone can be, however, the son could be both son and intruder. We don't know if he lived at the address or dad had thrown him out. Son has long cimnial and drug dealign record. Could he have come back home to steal from or do harm to dad? Of course, I wouldn't buy that story unless there was a protective restrainng order against son by father or mother.
ReplyDeleteThere ya go, he thought he was killing someone else's kid...
ReplyDeleteMy husband always said guns don't belong in the hands of civilians, because they are too easy to use, and very effective for their intended purpose--or for unintended purposes, in the tragic cases that occur daily.
ReplyDeleteHe was a career infantry officer, an Airborne Ranger, highly-decorated Vietnam veteran, black belt in tae kwon do earned in Korea, master's in poli sci, and member of Mensa and Intertel, before he eventually lost his mind to vascular dementia, thanks to the Agent Orange he was exposed to in III Corps Tactical Zone.
Since he was away a lot, and we had five children, I asked once if we could get a handgun or small shotgun for me to use for protection, just in case. He was adamant in his refusal.
Like Leland, he believed passive defense is best--motion sensor lights, alarm system (including dogs), and well-secured points of entry.
Unlike Leland (I hope) he had personally killed many people with guns and other terrible weapons. It turned him into a lifelong opponent of gun ownership, except for responsible hunting. With the passage of time, I have come to understand how right he was.
OT, but Gryphen likes bear stories, and there's a new video worth checking out. A fat black bear was recorded for 6 hours, foraging around a Colorado Springs home while the jet-lagged owner slept upstairs. The bear stood up and opened the refrigerator. Jackpot, the owner had just shopped at Costco. The bear opened cabinets, tore up the disposal, wandered into bedrooms, and peed all over the place. The homeowner, an environmental engineer, described the damage as catastrophic. The same bear had broken into a nearby residential garage a few days earlier and held a terrified woman hostage in her SUV. Since the bear had lost its fear of humans and was a danger as well as a nuisance, it was killed with a single shot.
Last August, I took a relaxing solitary twilight stroll at a beautiful lake near my home, only to read the next morning that a large male bear had been spotted roaming the shore. Since I live in Washington state, I always carry bear spray. I am an old sissy who is terrified of bears, but at least I do not own a gun.
A few days later, a bear--perhaps the same one--crashed a garage sale in my town. It was captured and humanely given a "hard release," with Karelian bear dogs chasing it back deep into the woods.