Good Guy with a Gun #281: Norwood, PA
A concealed carry permit ended the dog fight in seconds. The racial slurs took considerably longer to wrap up. | Original incident: August 8, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is essentially the same as the calendar version.
A dog started this one. The people made it worse.
The man walking his dog, who is black — well, I mean, the person is black, I don’t know what color the dog was, and the former should matter no more than the latter — was taking the pooch for a stroll around 6:30 on a Thursday evening.
Another dog burst out of a house and went for the one he had on a leash. He was licensed to carry — again, the person was, stay with me here — and he fired his gun at the attacking dog.
That stopped the dog, but not the owner. Shawn Gallagher, 42, came out and screamed a racial slur and “I’m going to kill you.”
Someone had called the police, but Shawn ran before police got there. Police would later put out a warrant for his arrest on charges of ethnic intimidation, harassment, making terroristic threats, and disorderly conduct.
His brother, 39-year-old Christopher Gallagher, didn’t run. He grabbed a stick and hit the dog walker’s dog with it, right in front of responding officers, and was charged: animal cruelty, disorderly conduct, and possession of an instrument of crime — the stick, presumably.
Two lessons come from this incident:
First, that guns defend us from all attackers, not just humans.
Second, and more importantly, that the 2nd Amendment is meant for all Americans.
Take a bite of that, Gallagher boys.
Sources
Delaware County Daily Times ran the original reporting. The article spells the dog owner’s name two different ways — “Shawn” at first reference, “Sean” in its closing line. Norwood dog walker shoots attacking dog that bolted out of house (Delaware County Daily Times)
2A / specialist media
Dog Walker Defends Pet by Shooting Attacking Dog; Owner and Brother Charged After Racial Slurs and Animal Cruelty (USA Carry) — a close rewrite of the Delco Times piece.
Dogs can be incredibly dangerous. An older man in our neighborhood was taken down by three dogs coming at him at once; he was bitten but thankfully not too badly. This is why I am not "allowed" to walk far from the house without accompaniment.