This past week we ran a story about a woman who shot in her yard a dog that she allegedly felt was a threat to her.

We accept the fact that if a dog is menacing you or your family and it’s on your own property, then you have a right to protect yourself from that menace.

However, pulling out a gun and shooting in a busy neighborhood because a dog is in your trash seems a bit much to us, especially since there is an animal control department in the county that will take care of nuisance animals in the proper way.

We also can understand, out of compassion, why the woman who shot the dog with an illegal sawed-off shotgun was not arrested. After all, she was caring for six children at the time.

 What we can’t understand is why anyone who has six children in her house would have a loaded gun — a loaded illegal sawed-off shotgun — in her house, placed under a mattress in the living room within easy reach of the children.

As far as we are concerned, having a loaded gun, legal or illegal, in your home where it is easily accessible to children, is inexcusable.