Watch Out, ATF! The Dogs Are Learning to Shoot Back!

In journalism, it’s noted that unusual events tend to be reported while regular, everyday events aren’t. This is typically framed as something along the lines of how it’s not news when a dog bites a man, but it is when a man bites a dog.

And it’s true, no one reports a dog biting a person. It happens too often, and no one would find it interesting. Even if you go by the “if it bleeds, it leads” mantra, a simple dog bite isn’t enough to count as “bleeding.”

A dog mauling someone usually is, because it’s actually kind of rare.

A dog shooting someone, though? Now we’ve got news.

Talk about a ruff day.

A Pennsylvania man is now hospitalized after his dog allegedly fired a shotgun at him, injuring him in the back, according to the Shillington Police Department.

At approximately 11:13 p.m. on Tuesday, officials received reports of a shooting and that a 53-year-old man had suffered a gunshot wound to his back, police said in a press release obtained by ABC News.

While police were on their way to the scene, officials were informed that a dog had “jumped onto the bed and set the gun off,” police said. Once at the scene, officials found the man on the floor and conscious, police said.

The victim says he was in his room cleaning his guns when he set the shotgun on his bed. One of his dogs jumped onto the bed and, somehow, fired the weapon, hitting the man in his back.

The only other person in the house at the time was his son, who the man claims was in a completely different part of the home along with two other dogs.

If that’s true, then the dog managed to fire a shotgun.

Clearly, he’s getting ready for a visit from the ATF, where he knows he’s not going to have a choice but to shoot back.

Seriously, I still have questions, because this is a pretty unusual incident. Dogs just jumping on the bed aren’t likely to discharge a firearm of any kind except, maybe, a P320 (if you know, you know). A shotgun that’s properly functioning shouldn’t fire over something so innocuous.

Now, maybe there was some way the dog landed in such a way that it pulled the trigger, but I’m having a hard time picturing just how.

We also don’t know what kind of shotgun we’re talking about here. Something with a hammer that was cocked would be easier for a dog to accidentally pull than many others. That might explain what happened.

Still, it’s an unusual story, and unusual stories are news. In the gun world, a dog shooting a man most definitely qualifies, and I’m sure ATF agents are sweating as we speak. That’s probably good for them. It might make them a little less trigger-happy when Fido comes into the room barking, if they have to wonder if the family pooch is packing and ready to return fire.

Alright, probably not, but it’s still a funny image to see the ATF stack freaking out because the dog is potentially going to pop shots back at them.

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