Dog Shoots Person, Again... Again
Another dog-shoots-man story belies the defensive gun use myth
By: Eric Davidson
In what’s starting to feel like a bad 1980s horror movie series, last week brought us yet another story of a dog shooting a human. Let’s call this one, Doggie Assassin Part III: The Pooch is Packing.
As we’ve previously reported, there’s a better statistical chance of accidentally getting shot by a dog than a “good guy with a gun” stopping an active shooter.
This most recent example of mutt marksmanship happened in Berks County, Pennsylvania. According to NBC 10 Philadelphia, “police said officers learned that the man had been cleaning a firearm and placed it on his bed. He then proceeded to sit down on the bed, at which time, one of his dogs jumped up onto the bed, causing the shotgun to fire a round into his lower back.”
In our last such report, we found that between 2014-2023 there were 21 unintentional dog shootings versus 15 good guys with a gun stopping an active shooter. As far as we know, there were no canine shootings in 2024, and the same goes for active shooters stopped. We don’t have accurate 2025 figures from the FBI yet — and given the gun lobby’s influence on the current administration, we probably won’t any time soon.
We’re obviously having a little fun here, but numbers like these shed light on the gun lobby lie of defensive gun use; not to mention this is another reminder to practice safe storage of guns.
To be clear, we here at Armed with Reason love dogs, but best to keep them away from loaded weapons. You never know, they might not like that new brand of dog food you bought them.
Eric Davidson is Senior Editor at Armed With Reason. His first book, We Never Learn, has been reissued in an Expanded Edition.
Top photo by Amie Barron.