Texas Gov targets coyote

A reader this morning alerted me to T.R. (Tom) Kerth's column in today's Neighbors section of the Northwest Herald. Kerth's column, The Whole Nine Yards, appears on page 24, the Sun City section.

The gist of Kerth's column? Texas Gov. Rick Perry had blasted a coyote into oblivion one day while out jogging with his dog. The coyote was apparently eye-balling the Gov's dog and thinking it might be the main course of its next meal, but Gov. Perry had other ideas. So he took aim (literally), and that coyote won't bother anyone else's dog.

I don't know if I could have written 15 column-inches of copy about a coyote's meeting its maker, but maybe I could have.

Laws work a little differently in Texas. If you defend yourself (or your animal) against a vicious threat, you don't get charged with a felony and convicted in court. In fact, a Texas Department of Public Safety mouthpiece didn't even think the Gov needed to file a report.

Contrast that with the McHenry County Sheriff's Department and the State's Attorney's Office. If you defend yourself, not even just your own pet, from a vicious, trained, attack animal who is in your own yard, you will definitely get charged with a felony and, if you are unlucky to have the wrong jury or an attorney who fights a grease fire with water, then you are going to lose your right to own firearms and have a helluva time finding work.

And it could be that Tom Kerth has never seen a snake in Texas. They grow them big down there. I suspect that the Gov wasn't worried about a coyote going the other way or a snake off on the hilltop "over yonder." It's the one in the bushes, ready to attack. And no, you're not going to outrun the coyote or the snake that's close enough to strike.

Folks view guns differently in Texas. And in Arizona and in New Mexico. And, in fact, in most states.

And folks certainly view guns "differently" in Illinois, where it's okay for the Mayor of Chicago to pack heat and Aldermen to get themselves considered peace officers, so that they too can carry concealed weapons. But law-abiding citizens cannot carry concealed.

You know, maybe Aldermen are peace officers. Or piece officers. Gimme a piece of dis, and gimme a piece of dat.