The Clark County prosecutor is wasting tax payers money.
Via The Columbian
Clark County’s prosecutor said Tuesday he will dismiss a firearms-related charge against a Vancouver man who said he was merely taking Vice President Joe Biden’s advice on how to defend his property from car prowlers. Instead, the man will be prosecuted for obstructing a police officer.
Jeffrey C. Barton, 53, made international news when he told journalists: “I did what Joe Biden told me to do. I went outside and fired my shotgun in the air.”
That is a reference to the vice president’s answer to a question in February 2013 about home defense. Biden responded that Americans don’t need to own semiautomatic weapons because a couple blasts from a shotgun will scare off intruders.
Barton’s comment, dubbed the “Joe Biden defense,” was circulated widely among Second Amendment activists, and also landed a two-minute segment on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
Barton was scheduled to be tried next week in Clark County District Court on a misdemeanor charge of illegally discharging a firearm in connection with the incident at his home. But Clark County Prosecutor Tony Golik said Tuesday he has doubts that a jury would be persuaded beyond a reasonable doubt that Barton violated the law when he fired shots into the air in a county-designated no-shooting zone.
“A person, even in a no-shooting zone, still has the right to defend their person or their property,” Golik said. “In this case, based on the facts, there is a reasonable argument that Mr. Barton may have been defending his person and property when he fired in the air.”
However, the firearms charge will be replaced with a charge of obstructing a law enforcement officer Golik said.