From the ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ files comes this story out of Independence, Oregon, where a stolen shotgun apparently pulled the trigger of a stolen AR-15 and killed the man who had just stolen both firearms. The accused shotgun did not have an enlarged tactical charging handle like this one. If it had, the Dearly Departed would probably have lived to steal another day. From koinlocal6.com . . .

…Detectives say that 19 year-old Genaro Hernandez Mendoza of West Salem was going to visit family who lived on the farm when he entered and burglarized a home on Independence Highway.

Deputies say Mendoza took several items and fled from the home on foot. He returned to the farm and placed the stolen items behind a barn. They say he then stole a pickup truck belonging to the farm and returned to the home he burglarized stealing more items and a shotgun and AR-15 rifle.

Det. Williams with the Polk County Sheriff’s Department tells KOIN 6 News that they believe a piece of the shotgun was caught in the trigger area of the AR-15. While crossing the field the truck hit a bump causing the weapon to fire once striking and killing Mendoza.

Farm workers found the truck and Mendoza Sunday morning with the engine still running and the truck in drive.

Polk County Sheriff Bob Wolfe added that they would be reviewing the evidence to determine if anyone assisted Mendoza with the Burglary.

The report doesn’t specify that the shotgun’s bolt handle caught the AR’s trigger, but it’s the only part of a shotgun that conveniently fits inside the trigger guard. (A shotgun muzzle might fit, but not while the AR is upright.) This is possibly the first time that an unattended firearm used another firearm to kill a human being.

No word on whether Mr. Mendoza’s next of kin will sue the shotgun for wrongful death, its owners for negligence, or both.

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55 COMMENTS

  1. No harm in a little burglary on the way home to Mom and Pop, right? He was acquiring gifts for them.

    But that HEADLINE! It’s confusing. Stolen shotgun triggers? REALLY?

  3. So instead of “backup clamp” mounting a pistol to your rifle, You should mount a rifle to your shotgun. That way if you get go down the shotgun can keep fighting with the rifle, it might even drag your ass to cover.

    • Well a happy ending would have been that Mendoza (the thief) never entered into a life of crime but instead became a well-adjusted contributing member of society but that’s just too Disneyesque I suppose. Still, we can dream….

        • I’ve heard some talk on the internet that he was in fact an aspiring rapper who’d just recently turned his life around and was trying to set a positive example for the youth of his community.

  7. Well, that’s all the proof I need that these inanimate objects aren’t inherently evil- first chance that AR got, it shot the bad guy!

    • This just strengthens the case for disarmament. Even guns are killing poor innocent people with AR-15s. There’s no stopping these machines designed so that even inanimate objects can murder people!

  9. Well that’s the end of the “guns don’t kill people” argument. They may not pull their own triggers, but pull stunts like this if given the chance.

    Be careful in those gun safes out there.

    • Has anyone bothered to start an internet conspiracy theory in motion that this was a false flag operation staged by the New World Order the point of which was to suck the wind out of conventional wisdom that says that guns don’t kill people and aren’t inherently dangerous? What’s that, I just started it all on my own? Well then, you heard it here first.

  10. It was easy for the gun to shoot Mr. Mendoza, because they didn’t know each other. However, had the gun and Mr. Mendoza known each other, and had Mr. Mendoza been raping the gun, it would of been difficult for the gun to make the decision to take the life of the rapist. It’s tough to shoot someone you care about, even if they’re raping you.

    Sincerely,

    Zerlina Maxwell

    • When in doubt, just urinate, vomit and claim to be pregnant or have AIDS. Then you don’t need to shoot them.

      • Yeah, being so close to Canada, you’ve kinda got to wonder if this wasn’t some Canuck run amok.

    • Yeah, Mendoza. With a name like that, he just has to be illegal. Now, with a Seamus Rourke or Lachlan McKenzie, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.

      Point is, plenty of illegals do hard work that we can’t get good ol’ Americans to do and pay their taxes too (yeah, I know, amazing), and plenty of natural born citizens go on to lead a life of crime and don’t pay their taxes (remember Capone and what did him in?)

      In other words, get over this red herring.

      • Were family working on a farm or did they own said farm? If they owned the farm then how could he have “stolen” a truck the family owned? Article said he was visiting family on “the farm” who’s farm?

    • It no longer matters. It’s a moot point.
      .
      Since the government can’t keep track of the number of illegals, when you subtract one, the number is still somewhere around ??,???,??? give or take 1.

  13. Damn! Somebody dumped a whole gallon of chlorine in the shallow end of the gene pool. How did somebody that stupid live long enough to learn how to drive?

  14. Darwin award winner for this year is now a shoe in! Play stupid games, win stupid prizes!

  16. I should point out to people here at TTAG to NEVER (yes, I’m standing on an upturned 5 gal bucket and shouting at y’all), NEVER store loaded long arms in a safe, especially when you have bolt guns mixed into your collection.

    More than once, I’ve pulled (or tried to pry) a long gun out of my safe, only to have the trigger bumped by a bolt rifle neighbor. Occasionally, when the long arm on which I’m tugging was put away with the action cocked, I hear the trigger snap. If it had been loaded, I would have been one of your headlines.

    Just a little tip for when folks have lots of iron in your safes.

    • No, you’re not listening.

      First, you buy a shotgun for self-defence.

      Then you loan the shotgun some money and its goes and buys an AR-15 for its own self-defense.

      • Holy crap! If I had known that I could have saved a lot of money. Provided I was paid back promptly.

  20. Someone tell Pierce Morgan that the reason I need an AR-15 is to give it to the shotgun Joe Biden told me to buy. Home security problem solved; time to go watch some TV….

  21. If the shotgun had a background check it likely would have been denied. Was it even 18 years old?

  22. Obvious frame-up job. Everyone knows that shotguns kill more people than ARs, but NooOOOOooo – the “hunting” gun just points a finger at the evil Black Rifle and it gets the blame.

  23. Tonight on the 11 o’clock news: “A” gun doesn’t kill people (people kill people of course), but a critical mass of guns do kill people. In this breaking news story, researcher Mendoza determined that the critical mass of guns is the number 2. Sadly, the scientist died as a result of his research.

  24. “While crossing the field the truck hit a bump causing the weapon to fire once striking and killing Mendoza.”

    Its the fault of those damx potholes. Seems to me that another culprit in the poor innocent boy’s murder (he was after all turning his life around) was the lack of maintenance in Oregon’s roads. I can tell you stories from just last weekend with seeing rocks, big enough to halt an SUV, laying in the middle of Oregon’s roads. If Oregon’s government wasn’t giving so much money to care for illegal aliens and instead repaired the roads in this state then Genaro Hernandez Mendoza might still be alive. Oh’, wait a minute…

  25. That’s why I keep my AR unloaded and away from my shotgun. Those pump action ba$tards are sneaky. And don’t get me started on over-and-unders.

  28. So, even a shotgun would use an AR for self defense, proving ‘double barrel’ Biden even more wrong.

  30. Huh … I guess guns CAN kill people. Crap. Now I agree with Feinstein on something. Except I disagree with her about which guns kill. Apparently, shotguns kill. AR15’s are still just the tool of the trade. BAN SHOTGUNS! They have no sporting purpose! (Except for all the sports they are used for.)

  31. So the Brady bunch was right – guns DO kill people? Crap. Guess I have ta go turn in all my guns now, before my shotgun shoots me with my AR. They’re right next to each other in the safe.

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