Warning Shot Prompts Talk Of Gun Liability

Aug. 14--COTTONWOOD, California -- Vanessa Pratt has owned a gun for about 20 years -- but don't think she's a firearm enthusiast. After this past weekend, Pratt never wants anything to do with a gun again.

"There's so many (other) options," said Pratt, who lives south of Cottonwood. "I don't think after this I'll ever own a gun again. Never."

A bullet from the 61-year-old's gun ricocheted and hit her tenant in the leg Sunday when Pratt said she fired a warning shot to scare the angry man off. Now she says she's in the middle of an embarrassing, costly criminal case. While Pratt says she'd only ever pulled her gun on a rattlesnake before Sunday, she suddenly found herself jailed on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

"This is the most humiliating, horrible thing that's ever happened to me, ever," Pratt said. "It's the most horrifying place I've ever seen, and I don't think I really belong (in jail). It's the most terrifying thing that's ever happened to me."

The North State in general and Shasta County in particular are well-publicized gun country, with Shasta County boasting the most firearm sales per capita of any California county in recent years, the San Jose Mercury News reported. But Shasta County also had plenty of accidental gun injuries compared to the state average from 2006 to 2012, according to California Department of Public Health data. And Tehama County -- where Pratt lives -- has an even higher rate of accidents, with more than twice as many deaths and hospital visits per capita compared to the rest of the state in the same period of time. The county had an emergency room visit rate of 7.3 to the state's rate of 3.7, data show, and an accidental firearm death rate of 0.2 to the state's 0.1.

Indeed, experts say there are still plenty of people who don't realize the liability that comes with owning a gun in a state that -- contrary to the local culture -- is one of the strictest for firearms.

"Most of the time, people just aren't familiar with California law and what needs to be present before you have the right to defend yourself, and the law is quite clear. ... If you've got a bad guy, he looks like a bad guy, but you're not sure, you cannot use lethal force to defend yourself (in California)," said Patrick Jones, owner of Jones' Fort gun shop and a Redding city councilman. "You have to be sure, and people ask all the time, 'How do I know I'm sure?'"

That state-specific knowledge is crucial, Jones said, because in some areas -- like Florida, with its now-infamous "Stand Your Ground" law that saw a neighborhood watchman acquitted of killing an unarmed teen -- Pratt probably would have gotten away with firing a warning shot.

In California, though, that's considered negligent.

And even if you didn't do anything illegal, if a gun accident happens at your home, you're going to need a special policy to potentially cover yourself, not just homeowner's insurance.

"Your typical homeowner's insurance would not cover that," said Redding insurance agent Sal Azevedo. "Even the umbrella policy wouldn't cover it."

Azevedo recommends his clients seek out specialty insurance policies for gun owners but still be educated on when it's OK to fire. If you do something illegal -- even unintentionally -- the strength of your policy doesn't really matter. "(It) wouldn't cover me if I was in error," Azevedo said.

To avoid those errors, Jones and others offer classes for new gun-owners.

"That's like, 80 percent of the class, is we pound that into people -- when they can shoot, when they can't," he said.

Those who get a concealed-carry permit are required to learn some gun basics, but people who just have a firearm at their home -- like Pratt -- aren't, and they're noticeably worse off for it, Jones said.

"(Permit-holders) have got that information, and they're typically not the group making a mistake," he said. "It's this other group that has a firearm, they've had no instruction, and yet they've attempted to defend themselves, and they may not have satisfied the law in California in doing so because they did not have instruction."

In Pratt's case, an ex-boyfriend convinced her to get a gun because she was living alone.

But because of her lack of education on guns and a confusing run-in with deputies the night before her arrest -- when she fired a first warning shot at the tenant as he fought with her boyfriend that deputies knew about but didn't arrest her over -- Pratt did it again.

"It's very weird, because the night before I was OK, and the next day, I'm the bad guy," she said. "It literally was night and day. The night before, they were very supportive. The next day, it's the opposite -- I'm the bad guy, so that's what's mortifying."

Pratt said a friend convinced her to let the tenant stay at her home for cheap rent in exchange for help doing chores as he got back on his feet. But she and her boyfriend have been trying to evict the man after he allegedly damaged her property and caused fights there.

"We locked ourselves in the master bedroom ... he kicked the door in," she said. "I just wanted to scare him away."

Pratt wishes she wouldn't have shot at him, but she said she wasn't thinking clearly as he pounded on her door trying to get in.

"There's so many things I wish I could change, but I can't," she said.

Pratt has been suspended from her job, is facing a criminal charge and rumors she's a pot-grower -- since deputies mentioned marijuana plants on the property in a news release, which she says all belonged to the tenant. And she owes thousands for her bail bond.

"So this is really not only psychologically, it's financially devastating as well," she said, adding that she now understands why the federal government combined firearms with alcohol and tobacco in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. "They're the most dangerous things on the planet."

Link for our mobile readers.

Shasta County ER trips for unintentional firearm injuries -- Create Infographics

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