Okla. Mom Shoots Fleeing Burglar In Buns; Wingnut Erections To Never Subside

 This story about Oklahoma mom Cathy Kouba and the butt she shot is a great Rorschach test for how you feel about guns and the killing of people in the USA:

“Kouba said she grabbed the gun her son gave her for Mother’s Day and ran out the front door to confront the intruder out back.

“[I cocked the gun], saw that the door had broke down, then I saw him hitting over the fence and head to the creek,” Kouba said.

Kouba said she fired and thinks she hit him in his backside. Adding insult to injury, the intruder got tangled in her electric fence before escaping.”

Assuming that “hitting over the fence and head to the creek” is Oklahoman for “running away,” what’s your reaction to this story? Does it make you think, “Hey, that doesn’t sound exactly legal, shooting a guy who’s fleeing from your property”? Or are you more in line with Clash Daily, our patient zero for this lurid tale:

“This is what you call a happy ending. The mom wins and the bad guy loses – badly.”

We will be nice. We understand that someone in Cathy Kouba’s situation, having been jolted from sleep by an attempted break-in, might think in that heated moment that shooting the guy in the butt as he’s hitting over the fence is the right move.

But celebrating it? That’s gross. What if the guy died? Would that be “ROCK-N-ROLL,” as the Clash Daily headline puts it? Sorry if we sound like your mom, but you are not supposed to try and kill people who are running away from you after unsuccessfully trying to steal your stuff.

We checked the law in Oklahoma (insofar as Oklahoma has laws), and found that what Cathy did might actually be a crime. Per the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act [ PDF ], responsible gun owners are allowed to

“meet force with force, including deadly force, if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

We are not Oklahoma lawyers, but even such a brutal fence hitting as this doesn’t seem like it would meet that standard.

Weirdly, the site Bearing Arms is on a similar page:  

“In many jurisdictions shooting a fleeing criminal is considered assault with a deadly weapon and so firing at a fleeing suspect is not encouraged, but the authorities here seem to show very little interest in charging Kouba. The simple fact of the matter is that the odds of a successful prosecution of the mother of a special needs child defending her home is between slim and none, and the prosecutor knows it.

“Unfortunately the same response in some parts of the nation—each and every one dark blue politically—would result in her being charged.”

On the other hand, maybe if people who commit gun crimes are afraid of being charged with committing gun crimes, they’ll commit fewer gun crimes!

That’s not to say Cathy Kouba should be hauled off to jail or even tried for anything. It’s just a little weird that, you know, she shot someone in the butt , and it didn’t seem to inconvenience her much at all. Because… she’s a mom with a disabled daughter? Who lives in Oklahoma? So that makes it okay, we guess?

We called the El Reno, OK, police department for comment like an hour ago, and haven’t heard back. Will update with any new information concerning the status of the investigation or the possible whereabouts of the offending butt.

  Follow Alex on Twitter, for freedom! 

[ KOCO.com / Clash Daily / OK Self Defense Act / Bearing Arms ]