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Cannon Owner Fires at Neighbors

tyr_13

Penultimate Amazing
tyr_13
Joined
Aug 8, 2008
Messages
18,095
A local (to me) man fired his cannon at his neighbor's house for eight days straight.

Brian J. Malta, 52, who was arrested Wednesday after an ongoing dispute with his neighbors drove him to fire a replica Civil War cannon-loaded only with powder and wadding-at their house for eight days, had his defense attorney issue a statement Friday, touting Malta as a decent and admired member of the community.
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I've been past there before. It's not far from where my brother lives.

It's been reported by MTV and the Daily Mail in addition to the Buffalo News and the local paper, the Post Journal linked to above.

His history of running for office and suing the town is pretty funny too, but how does this go on for eight days? Maybe it's because of the fireworks are raceway. Loud booms aren't uncommon around that area and maybe it took them that long to realize that he wasn't just goofing around with his cannon.
 
This guy's an idiot. If you've ever seen what "just a piece of wadding" out of a cannon can do at close range, you'd agree.

Beanbag
 
Oh absolutely! I kind of think he was undercharged because I don't see any endangerment counts in there. To be out on only $2,500 is odd too. It's not like he doesn't have the assets, probably.

He's a loose cannon, as the Post-Journal so elegantly put it. Well, they said his lawyer denies that he is, but close enough.
 
'Course, if it was me, first time he touched one off at my house, I'd have called the police, and if they hadn't arrived in time, gotten my shotgun out and touched HIM off while he was loading up for the second round. How was I supposed to know it was a salute loading? Don't think it would be too hard to sell that logic to a jury.

Beanbag
 
I wonder how far away the neighbor's house is? I took a look at Prosser Road on Google Maps and it isn't densely populated although some houses are close enough to much bothered by cannons.

I belong to a local gun club that has been around since 1926. There have been some complaints lately. One from a man who says he can hear and feel gunfire concussion 1-2/3 miles away from the range inside of his house. Since I can't feel the concussion of even muzzle braked 50 caliber rifles from the range parking lot I have reason to think he is exaggerating. Sometimes on the 4th of July we’ll have a cannon there. It uses a pound of black powder and a loaf of bread as a wad. I don’t see anything impacting downrange when it ignites, but I don’t want to be downrange regardless. :)

Ranb
 
Much of Kiantone is rural. My brother lives at his girlfriend's old farm in that area with a few hundred acres.

However, there are many sections of the beautiful, glorious hill lands where wealthy people have purchased large sections of farmer fields or worse large sections of woodland to put up sections of McMasions that look almost all the same, are right next to each other, and demand low speed limits on the main road despite having their own sub roads. They complain about gun shots from hunters, the noise of farm equipment, and the smell of farms. That's right, these people buy farmland to turn into a snotty subdivision and then complain that it smells like...farmland. Also there tends to be a dozen such house on the market at any given time for much less than it costs to build them and people keep building new ones.

Where was I going with this... oh right! Malta reportedly lived on similar arrangement. There's the old farm house on one side of the road, then on the other someone bought land and build a newer house. Then behind that Malta build his unoriginal cookie cutter.

Unless it's the wrong house that is.

EDIT: Found it. Prosser Hill Road. About 400 feet between his house and either of two neighbors, unless I switched the houses and the neighbor was the one across the street in which case it would be about 150 feet.

EDIT 2: Duh, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had read that it was already reported as Prosser Hill Road...including in the post above mine!

EDIT 3: Wow, that's less than a mile on road from where my brother lives.
 
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Jeez, a bunch of people making a big deal about a guy firing a cannon at his neighbor. How about giving him some credit for not putting a cannon ball in it?

And now the police have taken away the guy's cannon. How about a little sympathy for the guy. That looked like it might have been an expensive cannon. What's he supposed to shoot at his neighbors with now?
 
Cannons don't kill neighbours.

Neighbours kill neighbours.

You can take my burny stick thing from my cold dead hand
 
Reminds me of the guy who had a job polishing the cannon on the courthouse square. He'd been doing this for 20 years with no problems. Then one day he became a libertarian, bought the cannon and went into business for himself.
 
cullennz said:
Let me guess.

You can fire blank cannons in the US?
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Yes! From the MTV link

"Apparently it's 100% legal to own a ***** cannon, but police arrested Malta for menacing and harassment after "[w]e had reports from people that had heard the cannon go off," some of them reportedly miles away.

The local sheriff wouldn't say what drove Malta to this alleged barrage, only calling it "a civil matter," adding, "I don't recall, during my 34-year career, taking a cannon" until now.

Somewhat disappointingly, police claim that Malta wasn't firing cannonballs, just the cannon equivalent of blanks. If he had, though, the National Cannon Association would probably blame the neighbors for not owning their own howitzers for self-defense"

That looks like it was written for a JREF thread about guns!
 
"upstanding citizen" who fires a blank canon at his neighbors.

I'd hate to see what a NON-upstanding citizen was.
 
It is further evidence that the USA exists to entertain the rest of the world. :)
 
Re-enactments and such don't bother me. Shooting at somebody's house, even with nothing but wadding, does.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
You can own and fire a cannon in the UK. Civil and Napoleonic War re-enactors do it most weekends in the summer.
http://www.artillerieapied.com/id4.html these guys are good.
http://www.95thrifles.com/home.html as are these (they do 95th Rifles and Royal Horse Artillery)
There is also a WW2 25pdr Troop that attend Re-enactments and fire their guns.
http://www.blmablog.com/2009/05/25-pounder-field-guns.html
http://www.uktank.org/images/Militaryodyssey200525pounders.jpg
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Horrible, uncivilised people! Glorifying war.
 
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