| Allfreedom99 said: This is good information. Thanks for sharing. I would not want to potentially shoot someone that did not mean to cause any physical harm to me, or my family. from your experience as a cop would I get in trouble for holding someone thats trying to steal from my residence at gun point until police arive? And that is good information that you should only shoot if they are about to harm you or someone else. |
Nope. As a matter of fact, a guy held another guy at gunpoint under the exact same circumstances not ten miles from where I live. I actually thanked him!
A couple of things I left out (again, in my state, not the entirety of the United States) is that you have a right to defend your home. If that person is coming into your house and you feel like your life is endangered, you can "do what must be done." Not even a year ago, a judge--that's right, a COURTROOM JUDGE--had two individuals break into his house in the middle of the night. He shot one of them dead on the spot. (Here's a link: http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2010-08-20/burglar-shot-breaking-judge-overstreets-home ). That's not an hour's drive from my house!!
Also, I posted that you should try to retreat. You don't have to retreat. If you don't think escape is possible, you can defend yourself. At the other end of the spectrum, as law enforcement, there may be someone with a weapon inside of a house. You can retreat--but if you decide to go inside and "neutralize" the subject, you are also covered.
Another grey area--if you believed that your life was in jeopardy (ie: someone pulls a fake gun or an object that looked like a lethal weapon), you can still be justified in your actions. In the end, it all comes down to what you can articulate in court. You'll possibly still be arrested but be released on your own recognizance until court. If you're justified, all charges will be dropped. Whether you're arrested in the first place will depend on the reporting officer's determination that a crime has taken place.
