Amy said...
No, we don't have a weapon in our home...not any gun, at least...we seriously thought about it...opted for a state of the art home alarm system....I was just presenting a "what if scenario" with the gun in the car.
I have a "panic button" on my car remote unit that I can use in or outside my car....when it goes off it sounds like the world is coming to an end....
You know, I have mixed emotions about gun ownership for our protection.....we really have seriously considered it....but we have a teen in the house and we were concerned about an accident.....
My father owned a handgun and got rid of it for the same reason...worried about an accident within our home. We do have a dog....he's not trained to attack but he sure sounds like it....
he scares everyone who doesn't know him...GRRR.....
Anyway....a couple of questions about using a gun for self defense.
A couple of days ago, a freshman student at one of our local colleges was accosted during the day as he was returning to his dorm. Two males tried to steal his money...he fought back....he was stabbed in the stomach...not sure yet whether a screwdriver or a knife was used...he was robbed of his cellphone...they fled...he went into his dorm...he's alright and out of the hospital. Now, if the student had a legally owned gun on him and if he shot those men before they stabbed him, would he be in legal trouble? What if he had killed one or both of them?
On the same day, a female student or a resident of the town,not sure, was accosted during the day by two males (they think the same two males, but not yet sure). They ripped her purse off her shoulder and ran. What if she had been carrying a weapon and shot them? Would she be in legal trouble? They didn't threaten her or harm her with a weapon.
Spaceman said...
Good call on the dog, barking helps alert you to the danger. I hope when he starts going wild, you have cell phone/panic button ready. I understand your mixed emotions. A teenager huh? I bet the teen is a smart and sensible young person. However, I understand the concern...and would recommend a nice safe with biometric reader...
http://www.safetysafeguards.com/I would need more details on your scenario's...but, I would think the first event would have been a clear cut case for engaging with weapon. The persons life was threatened, the bad guys had the intent, the capability, and the opportunity to kill him...and almost did. I would check state law and see what the statute's say.
In the second case, it would depend. Again, I'd check state law. But if the bad guy came running up, ripped purse off shoulder and then ran away...doubt she could blast him without some legal issues. Now if he was trying to rape her...or she felt her life was in danger, I'm sure she would have been justified.
Again, you'd need to check your state statutes on self-defense. They are usually fairly clear-cut. Here's mine:
TITLE 18
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
CHAPTER 40
HOMICIDE
18-4009. JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE BY ANY PERSON. Homicide is also justifiable
when committed by any person in either of the following cases:
1. When resisting any attempt to murder any person, or to commit a
felony, or to do some great bodily injury upon any person; or,
2. When committed in defense of habitation, property or person, against
one who manifestly intends or endeavors, by violence or surprise, to commit a
felony, or against one who manifestly intends and endeavors, in a violent,
riotous or tumultuous manner, to enter the habitation of another for the
purpose of offering violence to any person therein; or,
3. When committed in the lawful defense of such person, or of a wife or
husband, parent, child, master, mistress or servant of such person, when there
is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony or to do some
great bodily injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished;
but such person, or the person in whose behalf the defense was made, if he was
the assailant or engaged in mortal combat, must really and in good faith have
endeavored to decline any further struggle before the homicide was committed;
or,
4. When necessarily committed in attempting, by lawful ways and means, to
apprehend any person for any felony committed, or in lawfully suppressing any
riot, or in lawfully keeping and preserving the peace.