Irresponsible Gun Owner of the Day: James Sullivan

Groundhogs sure can be pesky little devils. They’re smart little varmints that can pop up in the darnedest places and do some serious damage to your landscaping. Just ask Carl Spackler.  Or Jim Sullivan, for that matter. He and a friend, Barry Guy were hanging out Sunday evening, having a few cold ones. As triblive.com details, Barry passed out fell asleep in Sullivan’s yard. And that’s when the groundhog decided to make his move . . .

Spying the brazen rodent as it made its way across his yard, Jim, who’s apparently able to handle his liquor a little better than his friend, armed himself and took dead aim. Kind of.

Sullivan was sitting on his porch with a .32-caliber rifle when a groundhog appeared and walked within “two feet” of the sleeping Guy.

When Sullivan attempted to shoot the animal, he missed, hitting his friend’s left foot.

But the hooch Sullivan enjoyed with this buddy had nothing to do with the errant shot. Of course it didn’t. When asked what happened by the staties who responded to the shooting, Sullivan told them “his rifle scope ‘must have been off.'” Nothing’s worse than a bad case of scope creep, right?

Sully’s now free on his own recognizance pending a hearing on aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless endangerment charges. Meanwhile Barry’s nursing his gunshot wound and the groundhog’s still roaming the yard, doing what groundhogs do. We’ll be sending Mr. Sullivan some IGOTD hardware. And while we’d hate to see it damaged, we wouldn’t be surprised if he uses it to get that scope zeroed in so he’s ready for the gopher’s next appearance.