A Tennessee man is facing charges after he allegedly opened fire on a family that was sledding in the snow, purporting that the family was on his property.

Benjamin Cook is facing six counts of aggravated assault in connection with the shooting, according to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. Additional charges could be filed pending the outcome of the investigation.

The sheriff’s office said deputies responded to the 6300 block of Stoney River Drive on Friday following a report that a man was shooting at a family of six playing outside in the snow.

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Preliminary information from the scene showed that the parents and their four children walked down the street to go sledding down a hill in their neighborhood, deputies said.

But at around 11:30 a.m., the family said they heard gunshots coming from the direction of a house down the hill near the 10400 block of Birchwood Pike. The mother said she observed snow fly up from the ground just a couple of feet from her one-year-old son.

The parents immediately looked in the direction of where the shots were coming from and yelled at a man, later identified as Cook, to stop shooting. The man claimed the family was on his property, but the family responded that they were not on his property.

A man is facing charges after he allegedly opened fire on a family that was sledding in the snow. (Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office)

The family then gathered their belongings and went home before reporting the incident to authorities.

Deputies responded to the shooter’s house and spoke to Cook. They also obtained pictures from a neighbor showing Cook in matching clothing walking through the woods carrying a black rifle slung across his back.

Cook was then arrested on aggravated assault charges.

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An investigation also revealed that the family was not on Cook’s property when he began shooting. (Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office)

An investigation also revealed that the family was not on Cook’s property when he began shooting.

A search warrant was executed at Cook’s home, where several rifles were found inside.

Amid the many acts of courage in kindness we have witnessed during the Los Angeles infernos, a darker side of human nature has also emerged as cases of looting rise. Unfortunately, in virulently anti-gun California, homeowners are left with few self-defense options.

Police have already charged more than 20 people with looting. One pernicious pair went so far as to dress up as firefighters to help themselves to the valuables of victims whose homes were abandoned or destroyed.

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Obviously, with the winds still whipping the deadly fires around Tinseltown, all resources, including police, are stretched to the breaking point, providing hard-hearted thieves with a target-rich environment for their crimes.

One thing that these thugs in Los Angeles can count on is that if they encounter a homeowner amid their looting, there is little chance that person will be pointing a gun at them.

In the free state of Florida, where the Second Amendment protecting gun rights is revered, not reviled, potential looters, after hurricanes for example, know that stealing from the wrong house could be a death sentence.

They know because Gov. Ron DeSantis told them so after the damage done to thousands of homes by Hurricane Milton last year.

“If you go into somebody’s house after the storm passes, think that you’re going to be able to commit crimes, you’re going to get in really serious trouble.” DeSantis promised, adding, “And quite frankly, you don’t know what’s behind that door in a Second Amendment state.”

Hear, hear.

There are really two ways in which the unarmed people of Los Angeles are put at risk by the Draconian anti-gun laws in the Golden State. The first is that individuals are unable to protect themselves and their property, but the second, and it might be worse, is that criminals are very well aware of this.

When we think about the reasons why we have the Second Amendment, it is often noted that it is for self-defense, and also a check on the power of the government. But in California, we are seeing a third reason, which is exactly this kind of emergency.

Florida’s Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd has a warning for looters attempting to take advantage of areas affected by Hurricane Milton.  (Fox News Digital)

Angelenos don’t need guns to overthrow their government, not yet anyway, but they do need them to hold down the fort, or the house, so to speak, while the government pours all of its resources into disaster management.

In fact, when you look at rates of gun ownership by state, it is rural states such as Montana that have the most guns per capita. This is precisely because, while in a city, government protection in the form of police is always minutes away, in rural areas, it often is not.

This is precisely where Los Angeles residents find themselves today. The city and state governments are overwhelmed, people need to protect themselves and short-sighted, anti-gun policies are preventing them from doing that.

This is why we see reports of some of the wealthy in LA paying for private security to protect their homes, which I guess is great if you are a millionaire, but if not, it leaves you even more vulnerable.

Frankly, in many cases, all it would take to dissuade would-be looters from rolling the dice with their lives is a handful of openly armed men in a neighborhood watch patrolling their neighborhood.

But the progressive leadership of California, who, by the way, also have armed protection at taxpayer expense, will not allow the average Joe to protect his family with a gun of his own.

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Progressive gun policies such as those in California, like so many other progressive policies, are intended to make citizens weaker, more vulnerable, and more dependent on the state. That is on open and clear display in LA today.

Hopefully, once this emergency passes, Californians will realize how essential their gun rights really are and demand their restoration. In the meantime, thousands and thousands are simply helpless.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nate Hochman was elected to get tough on crime. Here is his first chance. If the city does not allow its citizens to protect themselves, then the penalty for looting must be massive, as in years in prison.

But honestly, that is not and never will be an adequate replacement for an armed population, which is precisely what the founding fathers understood when they enshrined our God-given right to gun ownership.

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Western North Carolina families left without homes after Hurricane Helene swept through the Appalachian Mountain region last year received some devastating news earlier this month — their temporary FEMA housing assistance could soon come to an end, leaving them with nowhere to turn as temperatures dip below freezing. 

The agency began notifying some families checked into hotel or motel rooms that they are no longer eligible for the Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program due to one of the following reasons: an inspection indicated their home is habitable, they declined an inspection or FEMA has been unable to contact them to update their housing needs.

The deadline, initially Friday, now sits on Jan. 14. FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell says those who receive the notification who are still in need of housing are still eligible, but they need to contact the agency.

“There’s a number of reasons why somebody might have received that notification,” Criswell explained Sunday. 

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“What we do is we call everybody. We call them every two weeks to check in on where they’re at, what their status is, and is their home able to be occupied again, but one of the biggest things is when we call them, if we don’t hear from them, the only thing we can do is assume that they’ve been back in their home. One of the things I want to make sure, if somebody has received that notification, but they haven’t talked to somebody at FEMA and their situation is still in need, they are still eligible. We just need them to get in touch with us so we can talk to them. Everybody’s going to have a unique circumstance. Everybody’s going to have a unique situation,” she added. 

“We need to work with them all individually to make sure we’re getting them the right resources so they can continue to stay in a safe place until their home is either rebuilt or it’s accessible.”

North Carolina residents still needing assistance can contact 1-800-621-FEMA or visit a disaster recovery center to speak to someone face-to-face. 

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Married couple Victoria (L) and Jeff, stay on a street with their dog with a sign reading “Need help, lost everything in the flood”, after Hurricane Helene destroyed their motorhome about a month ago, in Asheville, North Carolina, on October 29, 2024.  (Photo by YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)

Already strained by the crisis left in Helene’s wake, FEMA must now also address the needs of families displaced by southern California wildfires, which continue to burn after creating billions of dollars worth of damage. 

Criswell told Fox News’ Shannon Bream that California residents needing assistance should register at disasterassistance.gov and contact their personal insurance company to see what they will cover. 

“But more importantly, [what they will] not cover so they can be eligible for different programs within our system,” she added.

Fox News’ Audrey Conklin and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.