Whew! Talk about dodging a (very large) bullet!

Drunk driver caught with 'homemade cannon' in Vernon, police say

VERNON — When officers pulled over a vehicle last week, they did not expect to find a homemade cannon in the trunk. 

Vernon police said Officer Tyler Wallace saw the vehicle operating erratically and commit several moving violations on Main Street at around 6:25 p.m. on Thursday. Wallace, a certified drug recognition expert, saw the driver exhibit multiple signs of impairment, according to the Vernon Police Department. 

Wallace saw drug paraphernalia and suspected narcotics in the vehicle and administered standardized field sobriety tests, which the driver, identified as Benton Grenier, did not perform to standard, police said. 

Grenier, 56, was arrested and officers searched his vehicle, finding what they described as a "homemade cannon," according to police. 

Grenier, a Vernon resident, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, along with narcotics offenses and multiple motor vehicle violations, police said. 

Huh. It looks like a very nice piece of craftsmanship, far more sophisticated and better made than the potato cannons I myself manufactured and used to shoot (towards) geese off my porch on Ole’s Creek. And I notice that “cannon possession” is not among the crimes Mr. Grenier is charged with; I hope that’s because it’s not illegal to begin with. After all, the anti-gun zealots argue that weapons, if allowed at all, should be limited to those in use at the birth of our nation, and our revolutionists certainly had cannon — lot’s of them. Still legal? You might say, “cannon — they’re not just for forbears any more”.

You might.

seizure of dorchester heights, 1775