Man shoots Lawnmower — be honest, you have wanted to do something like this

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By now, you may have heard of the case of the man who shot his own lawnmower for not starting. He was arrested and could face up to six years in jail on felony charges.

Now, I know the Gospel makes bad men good and good men better. However, anybody who is honest, especially a man, will have to admit that he has had the desire every once in a while to destroy some valuable piece of equipment. Personally, I fantasize about shooting my computer about once a week when it crashes in the middle of posting on this blog or in the middle of an important piece of work. (My favorite fantasy is to take it to the top of a tall building and drop it — heh). But the point is I DON’T do it. Last month my neighbor who is a close friend of mine had a broken string trimmer. It just stopped working in the middle of the job and he got so mad. Well, instead of whining he got a new one online using this link: https://www.findstringtrimmers.com/product/cub-cadet-41adz28c912-string-trimmer. My point is there are better, and more productive, ways to deal with things.

So, I guess there is something in the Gospel about self-control — the sin is not having the thought, the sin is not controlling those impulses. And the sin is owning an illegal shotgun and firing it at a lawnmower when you are drunk.

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About Geoff B.

Geoff B graduated from Stanford University (class of 1985) and worked in journalism for several years until about 1992, when he took up his second career in telecommunications sales. He has held many callings in the Church, but his favorite calling is father and husband. Geoff is active in martial arts and loves hiking and skiing. Geoff has five children and lives in Colorado.

17 thoughts on “Man shoots Lawnmower — be honest, you have wanted to do something like this”

  1. the sin is not having the thought, the sin is not controlling those impulses.

    Well, but there’s this in Psalm 19:

    Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight.

    So if we’re gonna sin for thinking it, can’t we have the fun of blasting the lawnmower anyway? 🙂

  2. Yeah, in a perfect world we would move beyond even having the thought, but the Church has made a point lately that having the thoughts is not a sin in itself — it is acting on the thoughts that is bad.

    The interesting thing for me as a convert is that my thoughts have definitely changed. I think less and less about sinning. So if I’m thinking less about doing it, the chances of sinning are a lot less.

    As for blowing away the lawnmower, well, I’ve never had that particular thought but if anybody were to review a list of my thoughts — especially regarding my computer in certain moments or other drivers in traffic, it would be scary. Definitely room for improvement.

  3. I once pulled the starter of a lawnmower for over an hour and if I’d had a shotgun I might have used it. Or then perhaps not. I wasn’t drunk, so my instinct for self-preservation would have kicked in.

    But a more interesting thing to me is the difference between having the urge to do something and actually doing it. It may be true that “as a man thinketh, so is he”, but I figure that refers to “entertaining” thoughts of doing something; more commonly known as “fantasizing”, this can lead to doing it. But having a sudden urge to do something you’re not supposed to do is to be human.

    When I was a new member and a younger, more temperamental man, I felt the urge to swear now and again. Now not so much, I’m much calmer.

  4. The interesting thing for me as a convert is that my thoughts have definitely changed.

    As an investigator (self-directed for now) that is true for me as well. In addition, as I move from doctrine to common practice to varied practice, I keep running into things that make me like this church more and more. Your comment about the thought not being the sin, but what you do about the thought leads to yet another box with a check mark in it.

  5. I would be afraid of the potential ricochet off the mower. I guess you would want to use a high caliber, armor piercing round. Right? 🙂

  6. Ellen, I will share a story with you. As I was moving toward baptism, I was talking to a friend and he said, “hey, what’s wrong with you, you don’t swear anymore.” And I had not realized it at all, but in fact I thought back and I had stopped swearing like a month beforehand. It was not like I said, “oh, I’m Mr. Perfect Mormon now, I must stop swearing.” It was a completely unconscious thing that I started speaking differently. I know now that the Holy Ghost was working inside of me and that I was being changed without being aware of it. CS Lewis (not a Mormon, but a favorite non-Mormon writer) talks a lot about this — as you draw closer to Christ you are changed unconsciously into a different person. CS Lewis understood the idea that we can become Gods — what that really means is that if we have always existed and will always exist it means that over time — millions of years from now — we will progress into something different than what we are now, or in other words Gods compared to what we are now.

    Now that I’ve been a member for almost a decade, I have almost forgotten what it is like to swear, but when my computer crashes the words come rushing back…..:)

  7. Now that I’ve been a member for almost a decade, I have almost forgotten what it is like to swear, but when my computer crashes the words come rushing back…..:)

    Geoff, get a Mac. ;-D

    Thanks for your story. For me, it doesn’t seem like “behavior modification”. It’s a whole new premise that generates a new way of living. And I say this never having been un-churched in my life. Many aspects of the LDS approach appeal to me at a gut level. So we’ll see …

  8. It was routine for me to have such feelings and it is still something I struggle with but then it occurred to me one day that such feelings were not a laughing matter. they were the root of my carnal nature and all my other sins could be tied back to this kind of “nearly harmless” anger.

  9. I had a friend who experienced a particularly frustrating round of golf; at the same time period he was remodeling his house. Those clubs are now behind the wall in his living room.

  10. Geoff, I’m unaware of any shotgun configurations that are in and of themselves illegal. There are configurations that are illegal to _possess_ without the proper paperwork, etc. But, even a fully automatic shotgun could be legally owned with the right license/paperwork. And “sawed off” shotguns are legal with the right license/paperwork too.

    Whenever you read in the paper about an “illegal firearm”, it’s almost always a misnomer. It was merely “illegally possessed” by the person in question. And that is generally due to the felon status of the person, or lack of the proper permit/license/paperwork/tax-stamp, etc. Some configurations may be illegally possessed due to them being banned by the _locality_, which possession could be entirely legal by the same person in a different locality.

  11. Bookslinger, good point. I think the issue here is that the guy was drunk and disturbing the peace and did not have the paperwork for whatever firearm he was using.

  13. Actually it’s not too hard but it is expensive and you have to allow the ATF to come in and do thorough searches of your home and office whenever they want.

  14. Clark, I think you’re thinking of other types of licenses/permits, such as an FFL.

    Things may have changed, but last time I was up on the requirements, the shortened shotgun permit was cheap and only required one background check.

  16. Well, I’ll be darned. Assuming no local restrictions (which I’m sure would stump me here in NYC), a $200 fee and an “extensive background check” (according to Wikipedia) is all you need to get the permit for a short barreled smokeless powder shotgun.

    Now, if I could imagine any use for the thing–other than carrying it under my coat and pulling it out quickly to mow down the opposition (think Clyde Barrow).

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