Posted: 4/4/2007 8:56:53 PM EDT
| I'm just curious... Not to be an ass or asking weird/lame questions, but I've heard a lot of gun owners also used their firearms to protect their family/house. I'm starting to see training/programs for this use but what keeps me wondering. If you're at a point where you're face to face (you as a person armed with a handgun) with the intruder holding one of your family member hostage where you're in a situation that you can't call the police and your only option is to engage him. While doing so, you can also get yourself in to critical issues where you can lead yourself to jail or sued by the family member of the intruder you shot. I might plan on taking one of these courses and hopefully it might explain a few things about (hopefully it is worth it), but with the law here in California about self-defense, how does it work? |
| basically you may only shoot someone if there is an immediate threat to your life(of course there are extenuating circumstances)... you cant shoot someone in the back, you cant shoot them if they are outside your home, there is a lot more...pretty much any situation in which there is an alternative to shooting someone you cant shoot them aka... unless you are held up in a corner with your family and the guy is coming straight at you with a butcher knife verbally annoucing he is going to kill all of you you should probably just wait for the cops or have a pretty darn good explination or lawyer..practice with what you plan on using but invest in a good alarm and that should solve most of your home self defense issues. of course if you are talking about CCW, good luck getting a permit in CA especially if you live remotely close to a large city. if you do manage to get onethe required classes will teach you all you need to know about the rules |
I beg to differ on just about everything you said after your first clause. California law and federal law state nothing about shooting in the back, hand, nuts, or nose - nor do they state inside the house, on the roof, on the patio or across the street, bing pinned in a corner, on the roof - ZERO, nothing, nada. According to your view I can bust your picture window and shoot at family members at random as long as I don't cross over a line where the window used to be. Or I could turn my back to you and shoot at you over my shoulder all day long and there wouldn't be a thing you could do about it. I could shoot at you as long as you were in the middle of an empty field with room to run (can you run at 2300 feet per second?) The law is really clear. As long as a reasonable person would be in fear for their life, or the life of another, they can respond with deadly force - and apply same until that fear is reasonably gone. If dude is chucking eggs at your house you can't kill him. If he's chucking flaming bottles of gasoline at the house him kill him. If dude is stealing your 42" televsion you can't shoot him. If he's stealling your 42" tall daughter kill him. If you shoot at dude and miss him and he runs away you can't shoot him - not in ten minutes, day days or ten weeks later when you see him at a resturant. If dude shoots at you and misses and then runs back to his car to grab a 12 gauge kill him. A good primer to get you thinking is "In the Gravest Extreme" - it's not a law book but does have better advice than what was given above or by me.  The concept is that a reasonable person whould be in fear for their life. California has had a home is your castle law for more than 10 years that I know of. A person shooting another breaking into his house is concidered inocent. It's likely that you'll face a DA and go though one hell of an investigation but if it's a righeous shoot so be it. It's also likely that you've face a civil trial where you'll be faced with the charge that dude was just delivering girl scout cookies (at 2:00 AM on a Sunday morning, with a stolen .357, while wearing a mask). If someone is shooting at me I'm sure going to stop that behavior right away - whether I'm backed into a corner or not! I've lowered my rifle and pistol at people before for proper cause more than once. Killing someone isn't like it is on TV or in the movies - it is a life changing event not to be taken lightly at any level. Of course you don't require a CCW permit on your own property 
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i understand your point of view..perhaps i should have worded it differently...you obviously can shoot someone in the back;however, when it goes under investigation, it will be highly scrutinized. i should have said it in terms of you may not shoot someone that is retreating...if some guy is goin through your house and you feel threatened but he is already running to the door to leave but you shoot him in the back, you are walking into a shit storm of legal proceedings likely to not be good for you. I guess i was just overemphasizing the fact that you must be immediately threatened. with a shotgun in hand and a guy trying to swing a knife at me with his back turned i would not feel to threatened though and would probably not shoot out of pity ..same thing with the outside your house comment..for most, if not all common situations, a person is generally not threatened and has no reason to shoot someone 20 yards in front of your house if you are inside..once again me just being lazy with typing and overemphasizing the point that you must be immediately threatened to have just cause for use of deadly force
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