Walker hit by Oregon target shooter's stray bullets sues for $2.5M

[passiveporcupine]

Source: Oregon Live

A rural Benton County woman filed a $2.5 million lawsuit on Thursday against her neighbor for taking target practice near a road and striking her in the buttocks and back with two stray bullets.

"After Gale screamed, Jeffrey Fields immediately stopped shooting, but he chose to not come to her aid and left her laying in the street."

A Benton County Circuit judge sentenced Fields to three years of probation, and barred him from firing a gun anywhere in the county until May 2018. The judge also sentenced Fields to 80 hours of community service.

Fields was shooting with Lena Potter, 37, downhill toward Reese Road, about 100 yards away.



Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/02/walker_shot_in_buttocks_back_b.html#incart_2box

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OK, am I the only one that thinks anyone shooting this carelessly, hitting another human (and then being too chickenshit to even go help her), regardless of how badly she was hurt (or could have been killed)...should never ever be allowed to own or shoot a gun again?

I can't believe this sentence.

BTW, she was seriously injured and will most likely have chronic medical problems because of this.

[Hoyt]

1. Just another callous gun loser we are supposed to coddle.

[friendly_iconoclast]

10. Even the NRA would disapprove of Fields' negligence:

http://training.nra.org/nra-gun-safety-rules.aspx

When using or storing a gun, always follow these NRA rules:

Know your target and what is beyond. Be absolutely sure you have identified your target beyond any doubt. Equally important, be aware of the area beyond your target. This means observing your prospective area of fire before you shoot. Never fire in a direction in which there are people or any other potential for mishap. Think first. Shoot second.

I have no doubt that you sincerely believe someone, somewhere thinks this dangerous fool
should be coddled. When you find that someone, give us a link.

Personally, I believe Fields should have been convicted of a felony, and imprisoned

[YankmeCrankme]

14. The link is in the OP

The judge and the prosecutors and anyone who supported him, coddled him

[friendly_iconoclast]

31. True, and I hope he gets clanged with a large civil judgement.

[Hoyt]

17. The NRA supports gunz and Zimmerman types.

[friendly_iconoclast]

30. They even (gasp!) go about their business without seeking your prior approval

Bad,bad NRA!

[deathrind]

2. Wow.

One would think jail time would be part of the sentence.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Absolutely, deathrind. It's the shooter's duty to NOT shoot others. n/t

[KT2000]

3. Oh - but it was an accident

which covers idiocy like this.
Why did he get probation. It's like the damage to this woman did not really mean anything.
This should have been a felony with permanent loss of right to own guns.

[Judi Lynn]

5. The shooter, Jeffrey Fields, chose NOT to help the woman he shot? Because he didn't have to?

Sure, just let her lie there, hoping for someone to come along who WILL bother to help.

CanNOT believe the completely obnoxious, flakey, "look the other way" esponse by the local judge.

[center]



Jeffrey Fields. [/center]

[passiveporcupine]

6. He was trying to pretend he didn't know he shot her

Like he couldn't hear her screaming from 100 yards away...and he immediately stopped shooting after she screamed. He knew...he was just too chicken shit to face up to it. And the judge had to know that.

[hollowdweller]

7. That happens more than you think.

You have to be really careful especially in areas where it is very flat because bullets will carry a long way.

I live in WV and I was always told to make sure if you were shooting you were shooting into a hill rather than where the bullet could travel long distances. In flat states they pile up dirt for a range so if you would happen to shoot over, or to the side of the dirt bank your bullets could continue and hit somebody.

There have been plenty of instances where people were even shot in bed by bullets shot great distances away.

[passiveporcupine]

27. I know. I was shot at when walking my dogs

on the county logging road near my home. It was a party group of drinking target shooters, at dusk, who were shooting all around them, not realizing the low hills to the south had a county road twisting behind them and there might be someone coming on that road. If I'd been in a vehicle, the vehicle would have been hit.

I was coming home from a long day's hike up in the mountains, and wanted to get home before it was too dark to see (rough road, lot's of rocks) and had to keep walking towards them, in spite of bullets whizzing past my head and hitting trees near me, because they couldn't hear my whistle. When I finally came around the low hills, I gave them a piece of my mind about what they were doing (drinking and shooting irresponsibly)...not one of them said a word, except a few mumbled apologies.

I've been nervous about walking up there ever since. And it was my favorite daily hike.

People should never mix drinking and guns and especially in a place where they are not shooting into hills. When I got to them they were actually shooting across the county road, which is illegal. They weren't shooting at targets...just at everything around them.

[davidpdx]

8. That is a leinent sentence

I hope she wins the civil suit. She deserves to get something for pain and suffering and medical bills.

[SunSeeker]

9. K & R for exposure. nt

[mdbl]

11. Does a person's homeowner insurance cover this

If she sues, who pays? That guy looks like he owns a 25 yr old pickup with old empty beer cans on the floor. Maybe guns should not be allowed to be purchased unless you have insurance, kinda like driving?

[Downwinder]

12. From the OP.

"In addition to Fields, the lawsuit also lists his businesses Dawson Timber Services, LLC, and Fields Enterprises, LLC, as defendants."

[mdbl]

13. Still wonder about those without their own means to pay

is there a liability insurance that would cover it?

[NickB79]

21. If found guilty, he'd have a lien placed against all his assets

His wages would be garnished to nothing, and he'd be forced to declare bankrupcy. He'd likely live in poverty for the rest of his life.

At best, the injured woman would get a tiny fraction of the amount she's suing for, because no way this guy has $2.5 million in assets to claim.

[mdbl]

23. in other words, gun owners should have insurance if they want to possess a firearm in public

is that unreasonable?

[passiveporcupine]

28. Absolutely.

I sincerely believe this.

[NickB79]

32. The story does say he was on his own property

At first I assumed he was on public land, but after further reading of the article it states:

According to the sheriff's office, Fields was shooting with Lena Potter, 37, downhill toward Reese Road, about 100 yards away. Fields lived on the property, which is about 5 miles northwest of Monroe.

However, since he was found guilty of a gross misdemeanor (pleaded down from a felony), I'm not sure if homeowner's insurance would even pay out when a crime has been committed by the policy holder. I could see the insurance company voiding his policy with such an argument.

As far as having liability insurance for guns in public areas, it should be noted that liability insurance makes it very clear that it doesn't pay if the holder of the insurance injures someone while committing a crime. That's been standard policy for a very, very long time. So, the only way a gun insurance policy would pay out is if the gun owner did nothing illegal and still managed to injure or kill someone.

With those issues in mind, I'd say gun insurance would be unreasonable, if it's a given that it would be unusable in the vast majority of cases it might apply. You'd have to come to some kind of agreement with the insurance companies where they would agree to cover such occurrences in the first place before you could require such insurance.

[mdbl]

35. I don't think it is unreasonable

In this case, it would be an accident and apply to this situation. I think insurance should be required by anyone who carries. It would be very simple to distinguish if the firearm was used criminally or not. If these incidents are so rare, insurance woulld't be too expensive, would it?

[NickB79]

36. Just be aware, the NRA would love if every gun owner required insurance

80 million gun owners in this country, all required to carry insurance policies, would be a billion-dollar industry for them. Offer cheap policies to NRA members, say $50/year, and you'd see the NRA become the most powerful lobbying group Washington DC has ever seen.

And since gun accidents that are not due to criminal action and not covered by homeowner's insurance are quite rare, the NRA could be very generous in compensation and still be rolling in cash.

[Vinca]

15. I hope she gets every dime of it.

Our rural road used to have a regular group of walkers . . . then a gun nut bought the house in back of us. They don't seem to realize bullets don't recognize property lines.

[passiveporcupine]

29. My neighbor had a woman staying in his house last year

with a teenage son. He was a very disrespectful boy who hung with a bad crowd. She bought him a (she said) pellet rifle for his birthday. It sounded more like a 22 to me. But he and his friends were all shooting it off their front porch, and I had to call and ask her to direct them up to the shooting area on the logging road near by, as my dogs were scared to death. We don't hear guns shots that close to home out here. I walked down to our property line to see who was shooting and saw them all shooting into the trees in between them and my county road. Their bullets were probably crossing the road, where neighbors are always walking with their dogs and kids.

Thank god they are not living there any more. I don't know why they left. I'm just glad they are gone. The boys used to go walking past my place screaming FUCK YOU at the top of their lungs and I'd never even met them. They were not mature enough to be handling guns.

[Vinca]

33. There's the danger and then there's the racket, too.

In the next town over there's a gorgeous house on the market for about a million and half on 40 acres. The people who owned it moved to our road to a house that looks almost identical and cost about the same (we're the poor mice in the neighborhood). I found out a little while ago that there's a shooting range not far from the house that's for sale and from dawn to dusk people are shooting every kind of weapon out there. They're going to have to target (no pun intended) deaf buyers, I guess. What a nuisance.

[passiveporcupine]

34. If it's too close to the house, that is nasty

There are two places out here where people shoot. One is a police shooting range, not often used, and far enough away it doesn't scare me or the dogs. The other one is the shooting are up on the logging road, where people have been shooting for years. Again, far enough away to not freak us out or even be annoying, even though sometimes it sounds like they have really big guns up there. I don't mind that, but when people shoot out here close to private property, it freaks me out because I never know what they are shooting at, or which way the bullets are flying.

[marble falls]

16. Failure to render aid alone is worth a long sentence.

[lark]

18. Another gun accident/negligent shooter.

If he had seriously stabbed her, he'd be doing so much more time than he is now. It's like if you want to hurt someone, be sure to use a gun and little will happen. NRA says use current laws to prosecute bad people who hurt others with guns, then goes all out to excuse every single use of guns.

Oh yeah, gun nuts, here's yet another weekly example of someone getting hurt non-intentionally by a gun. It probably happens daily, just only winds up here about once a week. Gun owners should be required to have insurance to compensate others who are hurt by these dangerous weapons.

[IronLionZion]

19. Now if that woman had a gun also

this is why we need more people with more guns, to stop the people with guns from ....


If you think about it too much you'll go cross eyed.

If you think about why our federal government is NOT ALLOWED to study any data on gun accidents then you'll get really angry. Almost angry enough to go and purchase a....

[ManiacJoe]

37. You obviously did not read the article

if you believe that the victim being armed would have changed the outcome at all.

[IronLionZion]

38. Do I really need to post this:

Thought it would be obvious that I was mocking the NRA and their twisted logic.

[ManiacJoe]

39. The sarcasm tag is always needed on DU.

With too many folks it is hard to tell the sarcasm from real thought.

[Lurks Often]

20. Blame the prosecutor for offering a plea deal

that took the the 3rd degree felony assault charge off the table. If he had been convicted of that, he would have lost his right to own a gun permanently under Federal law. Instead the plea deal allowed him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and misdemeanor convictions do not allow for a person to be banned from owning firearms for life with the exception of a few misdemeanors related to domestic violence.

[Firestorm49]

22. Only in America

This makes about as much sense as that twerpy little Affluenza kid getting off after killing four people while driving drunk. Maybe a good punishment would be to now reverse the roles and shoot that prick in the ass. He should not be allowed to own a gun any longer since he has " proven beyond reasonable doubt" that he is clearly not responsible enough to own one. What a dick!

[rockfordfile]

24. Brought to you by the un-American republican party and the nra

"A Benton County Circuit judge sentenced Fields to three years of probation, and barred him from firing a gun anywhere in the county until May 2018. The judge also sentenced Fields to 80 hours of community service."

His sorry ass should be in jail.

[MH1]

25. Just another "responsible gun owner" in America. nt.

[TheMastersNemesis]

26. An Elderly Man Was Killed By Stray Bullet While Camping With Family In Colo. Last Year.

And elderly man was just sitting while camping in a park in Colorado last year and was killed by a bullet from out of no where. I do not believe a shooter was ever ID'ed.

[mgmaggiemg]

40. responsible gun owner is a myth