The only thing better than a feel-good gun story is a feel-good gun story coming out of California. This one’s about as close to picture-perfect as it gets.

In Redding, California, 31-year-old Travis Hutchinson was at someone else’s home helping his girlfriend’s cousin study for a math exam. As the two were working through the problems on the page, another problem interrupted them: 34-year-old Burl William Hall, who was also in the home at the time, started a brawl with a few others in the (apparently crowded) house. Threatening to call the police, the homeowner managed to get Hall and his adversary out onto the porch.

Unable to continue his math tutoring under the circumstances, Hutchinson went out onto the porch to try to calm things down. In retrospect, he probably shouldn’t have had a 4-month-old baby in his arms while doing so, but hindsight is 20-20.

Hall’s then directed his rage on Hutchinson, hitting him in the head and face. According to police, the blows were so severe that Hutchinson was nearly knocked unconscious and almost dropped the child.  Fortunately, he was able to catch the kid in the nick of time.

Understandably concerned for his own safety as well as the child’s, Hutchinson, a lawful concealed carry permit holder, drew his gun and fired one round into Hall’s chest. That stopped the attack.

Hutchinson stayed at the scene and directed people in the home to call the police and request an ambulance. Hall, a registered sex offender with a “lengthy criminal history” succumbed to his injuries and died of the gunshot wound. Hutchinson hasn’t been arrested, but the case is being submitted to the DA for review.

Here is a brief video news segment from Action News Now:

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

56 COMMENTS

  1. What’s better than a defensive gun use ? A defensive gun use that rid’s the world of a sick , deranged, child molester 🙂

    • Sex offender does not necessarily mean child molester. In fact, most of the former are not the latter. Haven’t read what this guy was actually convicted of.

      You can have to register as a sex offender by streaking during a sporting event, depending on how the charges play out.

      • Yep, my old roommate got on the list by pissing in an ally after a few too many. Thanks Santa Barbara PD! Not sure why every homeless person in the county isn’t a sex offender as well by this logic.

      • He got violent and struck a man holding a child. He got what he deserved. Rush to his defense if you want but this POS behavior should tell you all you need to know about him. If you feel all these “innocent inmates” are just decent didn du nuffin boys then that’s fine. Let them all free, but then they can all go live with you.

        • You are apparently incapable of understanding my point, but if you ever want to try again, it’s this: words and concepts matter. Not everyone that does something bad (like hitting someone) is a child molester just like not everyone you disagree with is a nazi.

      • @ Staff Writer

        Only thing that is “feel-good” about this is, the fact that the child is hopefully unharmed both physically and mentally due to this incident; although there may be some auditory issue as a result of the gunshot and possibly an inherent mental defect from the parent.

        If 31-year-old Travis Hutchinson is the 4-month-olds father, what, if at all, was he thinking to –not only inject himself in someone else’s heated affair, but to additionally carrying the 4-month-old with him, in a manner I’m assuming to be in front of him.

        Damn!

      • I was just about to make this same point. You can land on that list through sexual assault of a spouse. Could be legit; could be a mutuallyregrettable, but consensual, moment of make-up sex during a divorce that gets recategorized later on. Could be an obscene, but mutual at the time, frat initiation that went a bit too far. Who wants to admit, once they’re in the ER, that they were down for butt chugging?

        Could be, as James in TX notes, a pair of high school sweethearts. In Texas, our “Romeo and Juliette” law holds that an adult and minor may engage in a consensual sexual relationship as long as their age difference is no greater than two years.

        Two years –> you’re good.
        Two years and a day –> you’re a registered sex offender. You want to put a bullet in that guy’s (or girl’s, if she’s the older one) head? C’mon.

        Hell, it could have been he was jerking off in a rarely used public restroom stall with a faulty door latch and somebody caught him in the act.

        Now, in this specific case, I don’t know the offender’s background. Could be a monster for all I know. I just don’t know that simply from his being a registered sex offender.

      • In some places, all it takes is a whistle, or eye rape, allegations are enough to get on a sex offender list. WooooOOooOoO seeexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Affenda! Its lost all gravity with me because anything and everything is a “sex” offense these days. let me see the conviction, if its bullshit, interview continues.

      • Hannibal
        Your friends example is why now it is socially acceptable to urinate and defecate in public in California. The Libertarians have been working to remove these penalties from the books for decades now.

        As far as the homeless people are concerned, they are a protected class in California. They can do no wrong. According to the Libertarians Liberals and the Left.

    • There is nothing worse than a pedophile or a sex offender. These are children that these dregs prey on. No court appointed therapy, no jail, the only solution is a bullet to the head.

      • I wouldn’t read too much into the “sex offender” label. Remember the stories about overzealous prosecutors going after an (just turned)18 year old that had sex with a (almost 16)15 year old? It happens more often than you realize. I personally know one such man. (Looked up his public criminal record after he told us just to confirm) That **** will follow them for life as well.

        • Hey I did THAT!!! So did everyone I knew. Pretty common way back when in the early 70’s. Oh and sometimes young ladies lie about their age. This guy deserved to die striking a man holding a baby!

  2. From this report, a good shoot. The way things usually work out, this report will not even resemble the final. And this one has a dodgy feel to it.

    • Yeah, definitely doesn’t have the feel of a clearly good shoot. Hopefully it’s a problem with the writeup rather than the choices made.

    • His sex offender status is relevant to the shoot as most states forbid sex offenders from being around children at all and, possibly with the exception of California, very few DAs will vigorously prosecute a case like this. I work with and around sex offenders on a daily basis and have yet to find one that shouldn’t be destroyed.

    • Yes it does. One less deranged sub human was eradicated from the burden they placed on the innocents around them, and the burden on the state. The world is now a slightly better place because he cannot abuse anymore children.

      • As noted above, you are confusing “child molester” with “sex offender”. I know of cases where someone had to register as a sex offender because they got drunk and ended up streaking in public.

        Is that a responsible behavior? No. But it’s entirely different than child molestation. The stories I found did not identify his convictions and I couldn’t find him on the public access website for California’s registry so I don’t know what type of offender he is.

        • That’s the second time you’ve jumped up in support of this scum. Other news reports have stated he has a very long criminal history, including that of a sex offender. You and your NAMBLA filth can go to hell, you make me want to vomit.

        • He’s not supporting the perp, he’s taking a stand against the spreading of uninformed BS on this site.

        • Judging by his behavior, it doesn’t seem like he was just some innocent boy who had sex with a girl one year younger then him. His behavior got his ass killed. And rightfully so. That means he did deserve it, and likely has committed similar acts trying to force himself on others before.

        • nobody,

          Yes, because I’m intelligent enough to know that phrases like ‘sex offender’ are used to draw out just the response we’re seeing here, even if it has nothing to do with children. It’s like when certain other groups like to use emotional appeals that are not necessarily based in truth to make arguments. As to this guy, it sounds like he was probably a criminal. But I don’t turn my brain off- like you, evidently- when the media parrots a phrase that is almost meaningless without specificity. Not everyone who is a criminal, even one who deserves to die, is a child molester. They deserve a very special place on the scale.

          You seem like you have some pretty severe emotional problems. Perhaps you should seek help. Do you maybe have some projection issues about feeling you have about children?

      • In today’s climate a 21 year old who gets drunk and is arrested urinating in an alley at 1 AM is now a RSO. The 19 year old who has sex with his 17 year old girl friend is now a RSO. Didn’t call that girl you hooked up with last night so she tells a few lies, congratulations you are now a RSO.

        • Yeah and judging by his violent behavior, it’s better for everyone he’s assumed room temperature. I like how some people are just in an absolute rush to defend this scumbag who got himself shot by being violent towards a lawful armed man defending his child. You people are stupid, and sick.

        • New Continental Army,

          I don’t get the sense that anyone here is defending the attacker who died. Nor do I get the sense that anyone here is defending rape or pedophilia.

          Rather, I believe that people here are illustrating how the “registered sex offender” label can be extremely misleading — and downright wrongly applied in cases where a jilted woman decides to take vengeance on some man.

          If some guy molested a child or raped a woman, by all means we should excoriate him. If some guy was inebriated and peed in the bushes behind some store, I don’t think that behavior deserves anything more than simple teasing.

        • New Continental Army,

          Either you are ignorant of what sex offender means or you are too easily manipulated to understand why some of us roll our eyes at the way the phrase is used. It runs the gamut from someone getting drunk and pissing in public to child rapist. Those two things are so different as to make the term almost useless.

          BUT: it’s used very effectively here, as evidenced by your reaction. The phrase ‘sex offender’ to get JUST the reaction you’re putting out there. No one is defending this guy’s actions that day, but because you’re getting played you’re unable or unwilling to entertain that someone can be a bad guy without being the ultimate bad guy. The same line was used with ‘terrorist’ for awhile.

          Don’t click your brain off every time someone uses a phrase meant to do just that.

  4. Buuuuhhh…. ummm…. whuuuut?

    I have been assured by many people who claim to know best that guns can only be used by bad people for bad things.

    Those nice people weren’t lying to me, where they?

    Glad to hear the kid is OK. And I can’t wait to see how the story morphs as the media spins it around to end up as gunsRbad-Mmmkay.

  5. How does this work? He’s a registered sex offender. Doesn’t that mean he’s not even supposed to be near kids? There were at least two kids in the house when the trouble started. Did the others in the house know of his criminal past? Did he live there?

    Answers is needed.

    • It does depend on the type of sex abuse. Just because he was tagged with a underage teen female, does not necessarily mean he wants to abuse babies in diapers. A sex offender is one for life. An 18 year old male with a 15 year old girl is wrong, that can follow him for life, but it doesn’t make him a baby raper.

      He served his time, got put on a list, and now, the fact he was on a list is being used as justification for his death. If he was violent towards someone and he got shot in self defense – that is enough reason.

    • Depends on the specific offense. If it was rape or molestation, yeah, usually, if it was something else, maybe not.

      Keep in mind that there are places where a 19-y-o getting frisky with a willing 17-y-o can be busted for statutory rape, this is a situation where waiting for details would not be a bad idea.

    • It’s not an automatic thing. It depends on the actual offense. Only if the offense is against a child is it generally applied. Sometimes even then, it’s modified with “unsupervised access.” “Sex offender” has become such a meaningless term.

  6. He fired a gun in the presence of a four-month old infant?

    He should be charged for child abuse and damage to the kid’s hearing…

    (Sarc)

  7. Are you suggesting that criminals obey the law!

    Leaving or calling police after the initial fight seems a good hindsight idea. Avoiding stupid people and situations is always a good move.

  9. RSOs have the worst circumstances of any released felon. Even paroled murderers can hide out but not the RSO. Because of the restrictions on where they can live, work and even visit family they are full of rage usually.
    Not defending them or calling for changes but I think if we are going to put a 20 or 30 something in a situation where they can’t live in society we should expect a high recidivism rate and homelessness. At least in prison they eat and are out of the rain.
    I also think we should identify property criminals, fraudsters, and killers the same way. The limits on where RSO can live has questionable constitutionality and there is little evidence supporting the effectiveness of the policy. It’s more of a NIMBY issue.
    It’s also surprising the level of RSO people are assigned Irrelevant to the offense. Many are caught up in high school romances afoul of parents and a few months on the wrong side of the law.
    As for whether this man in the story could live there that depends on the rules of the state, county and his registration requirements. And if the baby’s mother knew or not about his status.
    In any.case he’s dead so the book is closed

  10. My takeaway from this: how did he get a CCW permit here in California.?! Id like to talk to him and maybe he can giveme the hook up!

    • Redding is in Shasta County, California, which is “virtual shall issue.” Thanks Sheriff Bosenko! I haven’t seen the stats in a while, but there are roughly 7000 CCW holders in the county, which has a population of less than 200,000.

      • Mark N.,

        there are roughly 7000 CCW holders in the county, which has a population of less than 200,000

        That is about 1 in every 28 people. In states that have shall-issue concealed carry for 20+ years, the ratio is often in the range of 1 out of every 16 people. So, even in that “effectively shall-issue” county, the numbers are still out-of-whack with the rest of the nation. And yet I imagine that ratio is astronomical compared to the counties along the coast!

        • Very true, but it is only because most folks who live here don’t feel the need to carry. If they wanted to and have a clean record, the odds are very high that it will be granted. There is very little active crime such as car jackings and armed robberies, more along the lines of burglaries and auto theft, the two most popular crimes in town besides drug crimes (we have lots of homeless). For those, you can leave your guns at home! Plus the homeless are much more likely to fight among themselves than to confront anyone else. So with only 100,000 or so living in town, and only a couple three murders a year (usually domestic relations issues), it is a pretty safe place unless you run with the wrong crowd. The only exception was that crazy dude in Rancho Tehama, in the next county south, who went ballistic.

  11. The likelihood of charges is essentially zero. The witnesses–and there were several– backed up the shooter/homeowner’s version of the facts. He was not arrested, and I doubt he will be.

  12. “Hall, a registered sex offender with a “lengthy criminal history” succumbed to his injuries and died of the gunshot wound.”

    A perfect summation. 😃

  15. In commie kalifornia, he’ll likely be charged with SOMETHING. It is an election year after all.

  16. I’m glad this sex offender is dead. For those who want to makes excuses for a drug (alcohol) user, I say if you can’t hold your “sh#t”, then you pay the consequences. That’s called personal responsibility. It’s something the Libertarians use to believe in.

Comments are closed.