Man shoots at sons for not doing chores

Man shoots at sons for not doing chores

CHRIS ORNELAS A 71-year-old Albuquerque, New Mexico man says he fired a gun on his two adult sons after they refused to clean the stove. On Monday evening, police say the father, Sammy Shannon, pulled a .38 revolver and fired at his sons after an argument about chores. Shannon doesn't dispute that he fired the gun--he says it's his form of discipline. The father says all he asked of his 22 and 29-year-old sons, who still live with their parents, was to do their chores. "They didn't want to, so they got smart," Shannon said. That's when things got physical. "Both of them jumped on me, they knocked me down, got my arm all swolled up," he said. A police report says the sons jumped Shannon after he hit one of them. Then the men pinned their father down until their mother ordered them to let him up. Shannon says he then decided to use his own brand of discipline. "I'll even it up--I went and got my gun," he said. Shannon admits he fired his .38, but says he didn't aim it at his sons and would never actually shoot them. Shannon's sons told police they didn't see where their father was shooting--they just started running when he started pointing the gun their way. Shannon says his kids can still live with him, but they have to follow his rules. "I can't feed you every day, every night, take you where you want to go, send you to college and just come here, lay up and play video games all day," he said. Shannon is out on bond for now. He's being charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.