Althouse: Amy Bishop killed her brother back in 1986...

February 13, 2010

Amy Bishop killed her brother back in 1986...

... with 3 blasts from a shotgun. And she was never charged with a crime.

81 comments:

Unknown said...: "The shootings on the university campus opened a window into the pressure-cooker world of biotechnology start-ups, where scientists often depend on their association with academia for a leg up."

Great segue.; 2/13/10, 5:49 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Whoa.

After my experience, I'm still tripping on what people can do and get away with (will my ex and her beau get away with it?) I guess, after growing up in South Central and watching the O.J. saga, I shouldn't be but still,...just whoa.

On the other hand, O.J.'s in prison (finally) and now Amy's been exposed, so, maybe, in more cases than I know, time gets most of them? I just don't know.

Whatever it is, it deserves The Macho Response.; 2/13/10, 5:51 PM
Seppo said...: It was regarded as an accident, so there is no relationship to this year's events. She was just so unfortunate to by accident be pointing the shotgun in the same direction as the space her brother occupied when she discharged it three times. What was he doing there, anyhow? Questions they seem to be avoiding.; 2/13/10, 5:54 PM
rhhardin said...: As Mark Twain said of disaster-loving poet Julia Moore, she's worse than a gattling gun.; 2/13/10, 5:59 PM
Anonymous said...: Well, maybe her brother was buggin' her.; 2/13/10, 6:08 PM
Unknown said...: Remind me to steer clear of the People's Republic until they turn from sapphire to at least ultramarine blue; 2/13/10, 6:11 PM
TWM said...: Must have been one of them fully-auto assault shotguns.; 2/13/10, 6:13 PM
rhhardin said...: Faculty politics is pressure-packed owing to low stakes, Kissinger said.; 2/13/10, 6:15 PM
The Drill SGT said...: She was just so unfortunate to by accident be pointing the shotgun in the same direction as the space her brother occupied when she discharged it three times

She was "trying to unload it" :)

apparently she then walked into the street and pointed the 12 gauge at passing cars.

She was being booked for the shoting when a call came down from the DA and they released her into the custody of her politically connected mother.

The DA? Congressman Delahunt.

The police files are missing.

The family politics? Left of Lenin.

PS: I haven't heard what type of shotgun it was, but based on how flakey the alibi is, it wouldn't surprise me to find out it was a double barrelled 12 gauge :); 2/13/10, 6:17 PM
The Drill SGT said...: whoops, it was a pump 12 gauge.

that makes the basic alibi complete bull shit. you can't accidently fire a 12 gauge pump 3 times while trying to unload it

I bet even a gun expert like Althouse can detect a flaw in that fact pattern; 2/13/10, 6:23 PM
Sofa King said...: Wait, is a woman shooting a man dead even a crime? I'm sure it must have been self defense.; 2/13/10, 6:25 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: It's not like she didn't warn them.

Stop!

* BANG *

Or I'll

* BANG *

Shoot!

* BANG *; 2/13/10, 6:28 PM
Anonymous said...: you can't accidently fire a 12 gauge pump 3 times while trying to unload it

What if it was a 3-barrel auto-pump?; 2/13/10, 6:29 PM
Trooper York said...: What this surprises you? A politcally important family covers up a murder and no one gets charged? A extremely liberal family gets police to courrupt the judicial process despite their claims to social responsiblity?

Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!; 2/13/10, 6:29 PM
Big Mike said...: Now and again it crosses my mind that murder seems to be a habit-forming crime. She got away with it once, and so three more people died.

Dr. Bishop needs to be locked up until she dies, and it wouldn't bother me at all if the state of Alabama hurried it along with lethal injection.; 2/13/10, 6:41 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: A pardon as governor derailed Huckabee's prez aspirations.Could a less than diligent murder investigation derail the career of Massachussettes liberal Delahunt?; 2/13/10, 6:42 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Althouse: "murder"

Allegedly.; 2/13/10, 6:45 PM
robinintn said...: So I wonder how long until calls from the soft-science faculty for the students to attend thought re-education classes to teach them about the evils of guns?; 2/13/10, 6:46 PM
Ken Pidcock said...: In looking to confirm the information about Bishop's family's politics referenced by The Drill SGT (which I haven't found, although I'm not doubting its veracity), I was finally able to answer a question I've had all day: Why do I know the name Amy Bishop?

It's also the name of a well known victim of Huntington Disease.

As if it didn't already suck to be that family.; 2/13/10, 7:02 PM
save_the_rustbelt said...: I think 'bama has the death penalty for premeditated murder, and I doubt she can claim this was an accident.

The last I got out Old Betsy and spread some lead, it is damned hard to pump in a round by accident.; 2/13/10, 7:07 PM
Wince said...: Howie Carr yesterday on Hugo Chávez's favorite congressman, before today's revelation on her prior shooting.

William Delahunt, you’re next contestant in losing game

By Howie Carr
Saturday, February 13, 2010

Bill Delahunt, come on down!

The only question is, does he permanently adjourn to Hedonism II now, or in 2012?

It’s like a logging forest out there for congressional Democrats these days. Timber! First Chris Dodd falls, then Patches Kennedy, not to mention a whole host of lesser-known Beltway banditos. They’re all retiring due to ill health - the voters are sick of them. The question now is the same one they ask at the deli counter. Who’s next?

Consider why Delahunt might want to call it a career. First, he’s already got a state pension - $58,343.76 a year. He’s also vested for a congressional kiss in the mail, probably at least another $90,000. He turns 69 in July, so he’s still young enough to cash in on his career in, ahem, public service, as well as finding time to fact-find at those clothing-optional Jamaican beaches he so enjoys.

On the other hand . . . first of all, there’s a congressional redistricting coming up. Massachusetts may be losing a seat. Redistricting is all about carving, and it would be immensely easier if there’s a solon who is retiring and whose district no one would miss.

And if Delahunt runs, and loses, which certainly seems possible, then who better to gerrymander out of Congress in two years than the cheeky Republican who knocks him off?

Next, the Kennedy factor. If Delahunt doesn’t run, most likely the young Kennedy kid, Carrot Top, also known as Joe Roman Numeral, steps up. You can’t redistrict a Kennedy out of Congress, even now, not in Massachusetts.

But is this a good year for a Kennedy to be running anywhere? Ask Patches. To use a nautical metaphor, 2010 is looking like low tide for Democrats. Better to let the tide come back in, as it always does. If you run now and lose, Carrot Top, Camelot really is dead, forever. Better to wait your turn, kid - you know, like Uncle Teddy never did.

Moving along, the oldest congressman in the state is John Olver of Amherst, age 73. Olver is one of the few human beings at risk of contracting Dutch elm disease. His western Mass. district would be as easy to chop up after the 2010 Census as Delahunt’s, so he probably hangs on for one more term.

Next in age is Barney Frank, who will turn 70 next month. Have you seen all these grumpy TV interviews he’s been giving lately? It’s just not as much fun anymore never knowing when someone is going to play your sound bite from 2008 about how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in great shape going forward. . . .

Then there’s Easy Ed Markey. His district makes no sense, and at the age of 63, neither does he. But it would be cruel to deinstitutionalize him after 34 years in the halfway House of Representatives.

Having said all that, I still think Delahunt quits. I heard it’s going to be 81 at Hedonism II today.

wv-"ablabi" = they can't convict you of the crime if you can prove you were doing crunches at the time -- introducing "The Ablabi" (as seen on TV); 2/13/10, 7:09 PM
Anonymous said...: Professor: The NYT article doesn't say Bishop shot her brother three times. It says she fired a round into a wall, a round into her brother, and a round into the ceiling of her family's house.

But the fact that the detailed police report is missing is terribly, terribly disturbing.

Word verification: hyperen.; 2/13/10, 7:10 PM
Kirby Olson said...: Did she shoot everyone in the biology faculty meeting, or was someone or another spared? Did she say anything whilst she was firing (or, cleaning) the gun?; 2/13/10, 7:24 PM
Wince said...: Hmmm, I wonder if Bishop had the Eve Ensler dutch boy hairdo back in 1986?; 2/13/10, 7:25 PM
Peano said...: Yeah, but once she got into academia, she was home free. Who could spot a homicidal nut in that crowd?; 2/13/10, 7:30 PM
Kirby Olson said...: No permit for the gun. That's already a crime.

Had she ACTUALLY been denied tenure, or were the others just thinking about denial?

What will the sentencing look like?

I hope she gets the death penalty.; 2/13/10, 7:33 PM
save_the_rustbelt said...: Mr. Buddwing:

You are right, and the Officer who helped subdue her and who wrote the report remembers a pump action shotgun.

Hard to accidentally fire a pump action more than once.; 2/13/10, 7:34 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Kirby Olson said...
Did she shoot everyone in the biology faculty meeting, or was someone or another spared? Did she say anything whilst she was firing (or, cleaning) the gun?

the NYT says she killed 3, wounded 3. She either jammed the 9mm or ran through the magazine. she fled the room. 5 professors and 1 admin type. doesn't give a total count on the people in the room.

the shotgun killing was in Boston.; 2/13/10, 7:35 PM
Big Mike said...: Mr. Buddwing, have you ever worked a pump shotgun? One round fired by accident, maybe. Two or more, no way. I can't even begin to imagine working the slide "by accident."

I suppose, it being Bah-stun and all, that there is a possibility that it was an autoloader so that she didn't have to work a slide. The article did say "pump," I'm allowing for a reporter who is ignorant of firearms. (Are there any other kind?)

Another point to ponder. It was a 12 ga. Unless she had it on her shoulder, after pulling the trigger the first time it should have kicked itself out of her hands with the recoil.; 2/13/10, 7:37 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Kirby Olson said...
Had she ACTUALLY been denied tenure, or were the others just thinking about denial?

denied tenure last Spring. appealed the decision. Polcy was that folks denied tenure were out at the end of their 6th year. This was her last semester. year 6.

BTW: tried to get the School Chancellor fired. Likely that endeared her to the adminstration, so the likelihood of the adminstration overruling the department was next to none.; 2/13/10, 7:39 PM
Big Mike said...: @rustbelt, if the officer remembers a pump then it was a pump. I imagine that a police officer knows shotguns.; 2/13/10, 7:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Mr. Buddwing, have you ever worked a pump shotgun? One round fired by accident, maybe. Two or more, no way. I can't even begin to imagine working the slide "by accident."

In answer to your question: No. I've never fired a real gun in my life. I was merely pointing out the problem with the professor's heading for this post: "Amy Bishop killed her brother back in 1986... with 3 blasts from a shotgun." That's not what the linked article from the NYT said.; 2/13/10, 7:49 PM
EnigmatiCore said...: "Jason (the commenter) said...

Althouse: "murder"

Allegedly.'

Enigmaticore (also the commenter) said...

No allegedly about there being a murder.

The only 'allegedly' is if Amy Bishop did it-- and then some 'allegedlies' are merely legal formalities.; 2/13/10, 7:56 PM
Penny said...: So I guess this means we need to pay more attention to "connecting the dots"?

But that's such an old-fashioned game?

Surely, we can't be expected to keep an eye on everyone who has anger management issues?; 2/13/10, 8:43 PM
former law student said...: First of all, there's no "accidentally" pulling a trigger. But she shot her brother only once, according to the Globe.

Apparently the NYT journalist was not a science/engineering major. The characteristics he noted are all too typical:

Some students also had problems with Ms. Bishop’s teaching style, saying she simply read from the book in class but then tested them on material that she had not covered.

Ms. Bishop was “very socially awkward with students” and never made eye contact during personal conversations, Ms. Phillips said. “We all had kind of a problem with her. She never really taught much. She just read straight from the book.”

The sort of person who gets science PhDs is not the sort you want to have a beer with. A social nerd is someone who sits down and stares at someone else's shoes.

The material covered in a course should be in the syllabus. I suspect those who complained that she tested them on material she didn't cover because they quit going to class once they decided all she did was read from the book. Get hold of old tests, work all the problems in the text, and you'd probably do fine on the exam. Slackers typically don't.; 2/13/10, 9:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Her mother was on the Board of Personnel of the city, and DA Delahunt told the police to stop booking her back in 1986.

Looks bad for Delahunt. He seems to have done a favor for Judith Bishop. Three more people have been killed.; 2/13/10, 9:52 PM
save_the_rustbelt said...: former:

There are a couple of science PhDs I have a beer with regularly and they are a hoot.

But for the most part, many of the science folks are several bricks short of a personality - yikes.

Lots of science PhDs, hell lots of all research-oriented PhDs cannot teach worth a damn. Lab is a little easier for them, but mostly they are nerds.

This will unravel into something very ugly.; 2/13/10, 10:31 PM
a psychiatrist who learned from veterans said...: There doesn't seem to be much intersection between justice and Massachusetts in recent reports. The Amiraults were/are apparently jailed and humiliated for nothing. The assistant DA who reviewed the case and just failed being elected Senator, supported by the Democratic president, maintained the Amiraults' convictions and later let a relative of an influential union leader sexually assault a baby with a curling iron w/o being charged. Now some other politically connected woman who has murdered apparently again earlier escaped even a criminal charge in MA. Makes it look like 'progressives' are broadcasting over Radio Orwell.; 2/13/10, 10:35 PM
DADvocate said...: Hard to accidentally fire a pump action more than once.

Impossible is more like it. I've owned one for over 40 years, not a single accidental discharge. Not only do you have to pump it to chamber a shell, you have to take of the safety in order to fire it.

This whole situation stinks to high heaven and, again, shows how easy it is for a woman to get away with murder.; 2/13/10, 10:41 PM
Michael said...: FLS: Guns can go off without pulling the trigger. A dropped shotgun or one subjected to a bump can discharge. They aren't supposed to, but they can and do. On double barrel shotguns it is not uncommon for the second barrel to go off as a result of the kick of the first. I have a side by side that had that unfortunate problem before I had it repaired.

As someone pointed out correctly it is completely impossible for a pump shotgun to go off accidentally more than once. Impossible.; 2/13/10, 10:43 PM
David said...: Maybe she accidentally shot him twice, and then when she called the police to report that her brother was dead, the told her to check and make sure he was really dead.; 2/13/10, 10:50 PM
Mark said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/13/10, 11:05 PM
The Drill SGT said...: here's the state police report.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/us/14alabama1.pdf

there was a pump in the house, unloaded.

she had not wanted to learn how it works

per her statement, one day she decided to learn hot to load it by herself.

she loaded it, couldn't get it unloaded.

apparently fired it in her bedroom. Mom claims not to have heard a 12 gauge fired above her.

came down stairs with the loaded gun, asked her brother for help unload it in front of her mom.

accidently shot him

put on her coat, went outside, firing the shotgun another time. waves the gun at passing cars.

mom calls 911 and instead of waiting with her dying son, stands on the porch till the ambulance arrives.

strange; 2/13/10, 11:11 PM
Penny said...: This story isn't "strange", at least for we internet types.

Well, except for the part where someone dies. Now THAT'S way too odd.; 2/13/10, 11:27 PM
JAL said...: Well Drill Sgt -- I just read the report. Really really odd.

On just one read through I surmise that these folks did not get their stories lined up right in the 10+ days they had to do it. But no one was allowed to notice that.

Mrs. Bishop says Amy asked her to help her unload the gun.

Amy say she (Amy) asked Seth to help her unload the gun.

Amy shot a shotgun off in her bedroom and doesn't "recall" seeing anything come out of the gun?

Amy's mother said she didn't hear a shotgun blast in her house because it's "relatively well insulated."

Amy says she "turned" because "someone" said something to her. But why did she turn when she said she was talking to her brother and he was between her and her mother?

Amy puts her jacket on, picks up the shotgun and runs out the door?

Her explanation for why she got the gun out sounds fabricated. Nonspecific mumbo jumbo. Dissembling.

And knowing her son was not going to live and Mrs. Bishop isn't talking to him telling him she loved him as he was dying? (He probably was dead on site.)

My guess is that the DA did Judy and Sam a "favor," most people saw a distraught sister, and didn't push it any further. But the Bishop family behaviors are off kilter.

I feel sorry for all the families in Alabama who have lost their loved ones, or are dealing with trauma and possible loss. I feel sorry for Amy Bishop's kids.

Scott Peck's People of the Lie comes to mind when I think about Amy's mother.

I think the Congressman will announce in March that he will retire.; 2/14/10, 12:37 AM
JAL said...: And what gun smart person (her brother) would tell her the point the gun up?

Bad story.; 2/14/10, 12:41 AM
Xmas said...: I was 14, and living in Braintree when she shot her brother. I don't remember hearing a thing about this story. I'm asking some of my friend from that time about it, and they don't remember it either.

She was a smart girl and with a last name like Bishop, I'd suspect her parents may be Catholic. She could have gone to Archbishop Williams Catholic High School, which is why I've never heard of the incident.

Massachusetts's suburbs have a bit of the deer and duck hunting culture. In Braintree high school, around '87 and '88, I was on the rifle team. Some of the kids used to bring their rifles to school on Fridays because the team would head straight to the Rod and Gun club right after classes let out. The whole "fear the gun" thing didn't really foment until after Reagan was shot and the Brady Campaign drew strong support in Boston and Cambridge.; 2/14/10, 1:23 AM
Penny said...: What the heck is wrong with us that we politicize the tragedy that is Amy Bishop?; 2/14/10, 1:40 AM
Anga2010 said...: I'll bet the next woman gets tenure.; 2/14/10, 2:11 AM
Zach said...: A 12 gauge going off by surprise inside a confined space would sound like the crack of doom. The most likely reaction would be dropping the thing and never going near it again.; 2/14/10, 3:27 AM
Michael McNeil said...: that makes the basic alibi complete bull shit. you can't accidently fire a 12 gauge pump 3 times while trying to unload it

Sure you can. She unloaded it into her brother.; 2/14/10, 5:43 AM
AllenS said...: The fact that Amy Bishop killed her brother and wasn't charged isn't out of the ordinary. Anymore than driving your car into the water and leaving some young girl to drown and never being held accountable. That's the way it's done in Massachusettes.; 2/14/10, 5:59 AM
MDIJim said...: I grew up in Weymouth, next door to Braintree in the 1960s. Xmas is right. The South Shore suburbs are not like Cambridge and Wellesly. Being a Democrat in that area is all about jobs, first, last, and foremost. That's why it was so easy for Scott Brown, also from Norfolk County, but not actually the South Shore, to pick off Martha Coakley. Led so long by Kennedys and a kind of inertial hubris, Massachusetts Democrats lost touch with their roots.

The kind of "police protection" offered to a family like the Bishops was certainly pretty common on the South Shore in my day. It certainly helped that Mrs. Bishop was on the Town's personnel board and probably took part in Chief Polio's evaluations. Too bad that mom was not on the tenure committee at 'bama.; 2/14/10, 6:01 AM
The Drill SGT said...: cokaygne said...
The kind of "police protection" offered to a family like the Bishops was certainly pretty common on the South Shore in my day.

LOL, I've heard the stories about the Irish detective writing up the dead guy with his head in the gas oven as an accident rather than a suicide, so that the deader can get buried with a Mass.

I assume it's that sort of truth stretching?; 2/14/10, 6:44 AM
Michael Ryan said...: I think we need to concentrate more on condolences to the affected families.

And what of Amy Bishop's own family? I suspect that a woman who could do this to coworkers and a brother wouldn't be above abusing her own family too. Her husband. Her four kids. Are they in deep, deep grief, or relieved that it wasn't them?; 2/14/10, 7:02 AM
Bob said...: Reading Ann's post title and opening sentence, all I am reminded of is:

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother 40 whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father 41...; 2/14/10, 7:28 AM
Anonymous said...: Lizzie Borden was acquitted at trial.; 2/14/10, 7:30 AM
Robert Cook said...: "you can't accidently fire a 12 gauge pump 3 times while trying to unload it"

Maybe she just wanted to make sure she had emptied the gun.; 2/14/10, 8:00 AM
Xmas said...: Penny,

Amy isn't a tragedy. What she did to her victims is a tragedy. We aren't politicizing it, we're discussing the political fallout of political things that were done for her in the past.

On February 13th, Delahunt cleared the way for retiring by openly mulling if he was going to run in 2012. I think he saw the trouble coming on the day of the shooting.

That said, every nut that goes on a shooting spree, or who just has an higher than normal number of weapons, gets tagged as a Right Wing or Religious extremists. When, really, they're just a nut with a gun. So, Socialist Miss Bishop has just giving the Righties and Fundies their "See it's not just our side!" moment.

Sometimes crazy people get their hands on guns (or cars, or knives, or scissors, or golf clubs, or airplanes) and do crazy things. Sometimes very smart people are also very crazy people. Sometimes major warning signs get swept under the rug by politically connected parents. But nearly always, reporters like to throw in Christian and right-wing affiliations, just to show how "really crazy" someone is.; 2/14/10, 8:01 AM
amba said...: A male shooter would have turned the gun on himself at the end. (Much as one might wish he did so at the beginning.)

But as has been observed, men commit suicide far more than women, who mostly threaten it.; 2/14/10, 8:37 AM
Anonymous said...: Amy Bishop shot 6 people. 4 of them were minorities - once again, just think what would the reaction be if a graduate of Liberty University had done this.; 2/14/10, 8:46 AM
Anonymous said...: For the defense: Did she kill her brother with the first, second, or third shot?

Was he even in the room when the first two shots were fired? Did he come running after hearing the explosions?

Did they ever establish the sequence,thus the fatal round?; 2/14/10, 8:50 AM
Kirby Olson said...: She seemed to be in denial after the event, as if it hadn't happened.; 2/14/10, 8:51 AM
Pastafarian said...: When I first heard of this story (from Madison Man, in a comment on an earlier thread), I'd assumed that she'd accidentally shot her brother, and that this might have damaged her psychologically, later contributing to the Alabama murder spree.

But three shots from a pump 12 complicates that little theory.

I suppose there are two ways that it still could have been accidental:

1) She accidentally shot him with the first round, then fired off two into the walls/ceiling out of anger with herself, or with the person telling her how to unload it.

2) There are two ways to unload a pump: If it has a shell release button on the underside of the ejection port, then you can depress this button and the shells will come out of the tubular magazine without chambering them. Then you just press the slide release button to eject the already-chambered round (if there is one) without firing it.

But if it doesn't have such a button, then every round in the tube has to first go through the chamber. I don't know if she had a Browning BPS or some old piece of shit Savage/Stevens, but chances are, she didn't have that button, and so she was cycling the rounds through while holding the slide release button down, and she was doing it quick (which tends to make it easier). Now, you'd think that the recoil and noise from an accidental discharge would be enough to interrupt the process....but maybe not, if she was really concentrating. The kick from a 12 gauge with birdshot isn't that bad when fired from the hip.

So, very unlikely, but possibly still an accident.; 2/14/10, 9:41 AM
Pastafarian said...: Here's another question: What sort of idiot lets their 17 year old daughter who's unfamiliar with firearms play with a 12 gauge with live ammunition inside the house without supervision?

Some very smart people are awfully stupid.

Even if it was an accident, someone had to be charged with something here, didn't they? Child endangerment or neglect?; 2/14/10, 9:48 AM
DADvocate said...: The kick from a 12 gauge with birdshot isn't that bad when fired from the hip.

But still significant and very noisy. The natural position to hold a shotgun to unload it by chambering the shell first is in a diagonal position across the chest with the barrel pointed up at about 45 degrees. Of couse, someone not familiar with shotguns might try a different position. The accidental three shots theory holds no water at all.; 2/14/10, 9:54 AM
former law student said...: with a last name like Bishop, I'd suspect her parents may be Catholic

Wikipedia is unhelpful, saying only that an Amelia Bishop of Nova Scotia gave birth to three Nova Scotia politicians: Thomas, William, and Robert Dickson. Considering NS's Scottish heritage, I'd say that "Amelia Bishop" would be unlikely to be Catholic.; 2/14/10, 9:57 AM
former law student said...: I dimly recall having to rack the slide to unload a pump gun.; 2/14/10, 10:02 AM
Anonymous said...: In addition to determining the sequence (fatal round), did she shoot her brother in the front, the side, or the back? Was he coming, going, or standing still?; 2/14/10, 10:05 AM
Anonymous said...: The accidental three shots theory holds no water at all.

Depends on the sequence of rounds, especially given the scattering. If the first or second round proved the fatal shot, "accident" seems unlikely. But if it was the third and last round that proved fatal, there's a plausible defense.; 2/14/10, 10:14 AM
former law student said...: No permit for the gun. That's already a crime.

According to the NRA's digest of state gun laws, no permit is needed to possess a handgun, only to carry it concealed as she did on that particular day.

For the sake of argument let us assume her only crime was carrying a concealed handgun -- perhaps someone saw it in her purse when she paid for her morning latte. There is an exception for carrying in one's home, on one's land, or in one's fixed place of business. That last might let Bishop argue that the university was her "fixed place of business," but generally you have to own or control the property.; 2/14/10, 10:32 AM
Xmas said...: former law student,

For clarification, Braintree, if I remember correctly, was more than 50% Catholic when I lived there; 2/14/10, 12:13 PM
DADvocate said...: But if it was the third and last round that proved fatal, there's a plausible defense.

According to the accounts, it was the second shot. In any case, considering is was a pump shotgun, I find it hard to believe. For it to be the first round, you have to chamber a round, usually by holding down a "button" of sorts and pumping the gun, the safety must be off and then the gun fire accidentally some how.

You can chamber the second or third round without holding down the button but still must work the pump action, safety be off and, again, accidentally discharge. Of all the types of shotguns, single shot, double barrel, pump and semi-automatic, I feel the pump would be the least likely to accidentally discharge. Single barrel and double barrels have a shell already in the chamber when loaded. A semi-automatic, after the first round has been chambered, will automatically re-chamber a round each time shot. A pump actually has the most steps between loading and firing.; 2/14/10, 2:34 PM
Anonymous said...: DADvocate;

I was thinking less of the particular gun, and more of the situation. If, as you noted, the fatal shot represented the number two round of the reported three rounds, "accident" is more difficult to argue.

But certainly not impossible. Do we know, for example, if the victim was in the same room as the shooter; could she see him when she was firing the gun? Did she even know he was in the line of fire?

I retrospect, we assume the fix was in - but was it? Enough for the chief to risk his career, his retirement?

The latest incident is more clear cut, including premeditation. Enter; insanity. A normal person, a mother, doesn't jeopardize her family/kids by engaging in fatal acts of violence. Execution style.

For the defense: Totally and completely insane.; 2/14/10, 4:13 PM
Mark said...: AAli, I don't think the insanity defense works like that. But then, I'm not a lawyer.; 2/14/10, 7:20 PM
Pastafarian said...: DADvocate said: "The natural position to hold a shotgun to unload it by chambering the shell first is in a diagonal position across the chest with the barrel pointed up at about 45 degrees."

Well, when I had to unload a pump gun without a shell release button, I'd cycle the gun while holding it at just the right angle so that the shells would all land on a dry, clean area; or my brother would catch them. I'd pay some attention to the trajectory of the unfired shells, while, of course, making sure that there was nothing in the line of fire.

Again, I'm not saying that an accidental discharge of 3 rounds is likely, but it's not impossible. It would just require someone to have a firm grasp of the weapon and a remarkable tendency to just keep on making the same mistake over and over.

Montana Urban Legend springs to mind, for some reason.

Speaking of my brother: I've hunted and shot my whole life, and I've only been involved in one accidental discharge -- when my brother shot me. He was in his teens and working on a piece-of-shit Norinco Chinese SKS (a fixed-stock nondetachable magazine variant of the AK-47). He was having feeding issues, and cycling rounds through. He stripped the bolt back, assuming that the round had ejected, and attempted to dry-fire it at the television in the 10x12 bedroom we shared.

The 7.62x39 round isn't very powerful, but Jesus, it's loud.

The brass-jacketed bullet shattered when it hit the glass screen; most of the mass of the round went through the TV and through the wall and lodged in the doorjamb. The rest of it bounced off the TV and hit me. I dug a part of it out of my knee that had denim bonded to it, where it had passed through my blue jeans. Another piece went through my upper lip and knocked a tooth loose.

He was very upset about it, and needless to say he's been hyper-vigilant about firearms safety ever since. I can still remember him screaming "WHAT!!! WHAT!!!" while I laughed my ass off, with blood streaming from my lip.

Good times, good times.; 2/14/10, 8:03 PM
former law student said...: Xmas:

In a news report, Charles Kokoros, a Braintree town councilor, claims to be a classmate of Bishop's. His web bio says he's a 1983 graduate of Braintree High School.; 2/14/10, 8:40 PM
former law student said...: He was having feeding issues, and cycling rounds through.

You know, high quality snapcaps don't cost all that much, and will never put a hole in your TV.; 2/14/10, 8:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Bishop just keeps getting tougher and tougher to defend. Now this:

via Instapundit: “Amy Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were questioned after a package containing two bombs was sent to the Newton home of Dr. Paul Rosenberg, a professor and doctor at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.” - http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/ala_slay_suspec.html; 2/15/10, 5:46 AM
Anonymous said...: And I wonder if Bishop's husband was caught in this syndrome:

(Also via Instapundit): NIKKI DOWLING: Girl On Girl: Dating Women Makes Me Sympathize With Men. - http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-girl-on-girl-dating-women-makes-me-sympathize-with-men/

Tags: College, Dating, Scene, Insanity, Tenure, Murder; 2/15/10, 6:02 AM
Anonymous said...: More details seem to be emerging, the latest that after shooting her brother, Bishop ran into the street and attempted to carjack a passing vehicle. At gunpoint.

If true, little question now that there was a criminal cover-up.; 2/15/10, 6:33 PM

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