Obey your mother…unless she asks you to help her with a retaliatory shooting.
Yes, that’s really what happened in this case from the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
After mom got into a scrap at the park over an ex-boyfriend (which lead to an initial shooting), she left and got her son. Then they went back, both armed, and both felons.
The son opened fire from the car window. The targets (including the ex-boyfriend) shot back. All this melee happened in a crowded public park. Shameful.
They were caught, of course. Mom and son each received a sentence of more than a decade in prison for federal felon-in-possession charges. They both thought that was too long.
The court didn’t. This week it upheld both their sentences.
And the court got it done in only three pages. (Two, if you don’t count the title page.) Other circuits, take note please.
You can read the unpublished opinion here.