crime scene

When an enraged father elevated a domestic disturbance in his West Virginia home to attempted murder by firing a shotgun at his wife, his 15-year-old son turned the tables on him and said “Enough!” with a 20-gauge shotgun of his own.

According to The Gazette, the incident occurred last Wednesday night, March 20, when Maxwell Laham of Rock Cave, W.V., became involved in a fight with his wife that turned physical. At some point, Lahan grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun and fired a shot, but didn’t strike his wife or any other inhabitants—including his juvenile daughter and his son—in the home.

The mother and girl fled the home after being shot at, but Lahan’s 15-year-old son armed himself with a 20-gauge. When his father began to pursue him through the house and aimed his shotgun at his son, the boy opened fire on his father, striking him in the chest and killing him.

The Gazette reports the matter is still under investigation, but at this point, no charges have been filed. Nobody else was harmed in the incident.

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26 COMMENTS

  1. It’s weird the things the gun community celebrates. This is a kid. Even given the circumstances, he will live out his life under the shadow of having to take his own father’s life. There are no winners here and this is not a “gun” story about victory of gauges. Good grief get help.

    • Who needs help here? Maybe it’s the troll that can’t comprehend a discussion about good triumphing over evil when FORCED to take action. I know, in your little perfect world powered by unicorn farts and glitter, things like this never happen and should be hidden away.

      • Pb_fan59:
        The headline to this very sad story starts with the words: “20 Gauge Beats 12 Gauge…” And I can see how NoVictoryinDeath feels about how the story is being presented. I too am inclined to think that the TTAG editor could have passed on this story altogether. There are no winners here, either gauges or people.

        • If the father was that enraged, he had serious mental problems that no psychological or Democrat intervention could help. The father became berserk and no talking or “touchy-feely-goody” could have helped. The son was within his right mind and in “self-defense” mode. When the father came after him, he wasn’t a father anymore. The guy became a crazed lunatic that had to be put down. It was either the son, or the father. For all of you milquetoasts out there, there are more of these stories that end in the other direction, but I don’t hear you whining over them.

        • Maybe not a place for dark humor, you may be right on that, NoVictoryInDeath and TheTTAGShadow. We’ll keep that in mind going forward as dealing with stories like this all the time, it is easy to almost forget how words may be taken by different folks. We admittedly don’t have much pity for criminals and brutes who suffer severely at the hands of those they would victimize, but in this instance, we should consider the teen son’s position of not wanting to be in that situation and having to live with a horrible reality the rest of his life as a result. There is for sure no winners in this story and is tragic these kids had to grow up in such a, I think another commenter nailed it on the head, “chaotic” environment. Thanks for your input…from everyone who was concerned with the tone of the headline, as well as those who got where we were going with the story. From a self-defense story standpoint, this is absolutely worth covering and not “a pass,” as there are a number of considerations not made by some lawmakers that could’ve left this young man unable to defend himself in the face of an unimaginable threat. But yes, we get where the headline may have come off as a little insensitive.

        • Nomoremarxists:
          YOU DON’T HEAR ME WHINING ABOUT ANYTHING. Try reading my comment again, this time with some reading comprehension. And trust me, nobody who knows me has ever accused me of being a milquetoast.

        • The good thing about a website is it allows us to reconsider and change words unlike a printed page. After additional consideration, we decided to soften the original headline, “20 Gauge Beats 12 Gauge as WV Son is Forced to Defend Family Against Father,” to remain accurate to the story, but with the dark humor removed. This was done out of respect for the young man and the trauma he and his family must be experiencing as a result of the events outlined in the story. It is a very valid consideration. Again, we appreciate everyone’s comments on the matter.

    • I view these type of reports as a lesson that youngsters need their enumerated right protected to access firearms and laws that restrict youngsters would most likely have devastating consequences as in the case here.

      • If what I suspect is true it sounds like the young man with the 20 and his mother and sister won and the terrorist with the 12 lost. One can only imagine the terrorist’s prior abusive ways.

    • Kid is at least alive to deal with the traumatic event. That’s a win over the alternative if he hadn’t been armed.

    • The only other alternative ending would be a man facing life in prison for the murder of his son. Said 15 year old son would be dead for no reason than that he lacked the means to defend himself. In what way would that have been a better ending?

    • Plenty of people in this world grew up with awful parents and grew into productive responsible adults. Yes, this is a sad story that should have had a better ending, but also could have had a much worse ending.

      In the end this kid will have the opportunity to live his life, and he can sleep well at night knowing he protected his mother from possible death.

      Hopefully this kid becomes a better parent than his father was.

  2. I cannot imagine being in a family as chaotic as that. My parents were stable and worked together to raise a family.

    I’m an old guy. My father was old school. If you earned an ass whooping you got an ass whooping. But you had to earn it and I never felt at risk of death or serious injury.

    I never felt the need to turn a gun on my father. And I had the guns in the house to do so. I am from WV and just about everyone had at least a shotgun.

  3. Between dad dropping the three of them or dad getting dropped by one of them, I’d call that a win with a steep psychological cost. I know adults who have had to act defensively resulting in the death of the aggressor when the aggressors were strangers, and I know it left mental scars. I can’t imagine the well of suck this kid fell in, but given the alternative, this is the most positive result. One of the armed defenders I know said he came to the realization that he didn’t decide to do what he did, the armed attacker made that choice.

    • Scooter said, “the armed attacker made that choice.”
      And that is exactly what happened.
      The son will have to live with killing his father, but the other choice would have been to die.

      Some here seem to think that the young son should have done nothing.
      Ask yourself, what would you have done?

    • Amen- and TTAG did nothing wrong in the titling of this event. Thanks for the reporting you do, TTAG!

  4. I suppose cooking up a lunch for your boyfriend does have a tendency to piss off the husband.
    ” We’re Not going to have a FAMILY BRAWL.”
    and then I just started blasting.
    *BLAM*
    Billy been cooking up something.
    If you want a biscuit come on then
    Billy got it jumping
    “Mommy, I feel kinda funny eating daddy.”
    Have a biscuit.

  5. I’m glad the young man had the wherewithal to do what he had to do, as horrible as it is. I hope the family gets some good help working through the aftermath.

    • I’ve often wondered where the term Bat Sht Ctazy came from.
      Perhaps quango harvesters in the BatCave and the bat feces had some kind of fungus that effected the mind.

  7. There may not have been any winners, but the kid kept the number of losers from increasing.

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