Quote:
Originally Posted by madcorgi
(Post 10504353)
No matter where you live or what the reasons, shooting someone will royally screw up your life in manifold ways. Cops will arrest you for murder; they won't show up, hear your story, and clap you on the back with a "Good shoot, Citizen!" Your "victim" will sue you. If he's dead, he'll have a large, grieving, and needy family. If you don't kill him, you'll get asked to support him forever.
Got a job or a career that keeps you busy? Plan on a year or so pause in your career while you become an expert on self-defense/castle doctrine/stand your ground. Own your own business? Kiss that goodbye, along with your house, your time, and your bank accounts. You can either pay those in hot pursuit or pay your lawyer to keep them at bay. Or both.
And, while it might seem completely justifiable in the moment, any normal person who kills another over a property crime will inevitably ask himself if it was worth it. Most will conclude it was not. It isn't.
|
We used to say "there is a lawyer riding on every bullet". And that was no exaggeration. The shooting world is full of anecdotal stories that played out just as you describe. It used to be that if the only other option was dying at the hands of some crook, well, then it was worth it.
It is my understanding, however, that our "Castle Doctrine" and other such law that has been passed over the last decade or so has dramatically reduced, if not completely eliminated, the legal peril one faces after a justifiable self-defense shooting. It blocks lawsuits from the perp or their families and severely limits any possibility of criminal prosecution.
These laws vary from state to state, of course, so if one is going to be armed, it is extremely important to be familiar with your state's law regarding all of this. Some states, for example, still have "duty to retreat" laws, wherein one is even obligated to make every effort to leave one's home in the event of a home invasion. Others restrict "home defense" to actually inside the domicile itself with the intruder required to have demonstrated in some way that they intended physical harm. Others, the most liberal of these laws, only require that an intruder be in your home or even, in the most liberal cases, merely on your property. The default is that their mere uninvited presence represents a threat, and that the property owner need not conduct any sort of an in-depth review to determine the level of threat presented.
So, yes, it is very, very important to be familiar with the laws in one's jurisdiction. It may also pay, where available, to have some sort of "coverage". Here in the U.S., the NRA now offers a program called "Carry Guard". A small yearly fee actually keeps their rather formidable legal staff "on retainer" for members who sign up for this program. Should worse come to worse, and one suffers the unspeakable nightmare of actually having to go through with something of this nature, having an experienced, specialized legal team behind you may very well save one the follow-on nightmare you describe.
At least legally. You still have to live with yourself. The self-doubt, second guessing, and guilt will follow you the rest of your life, no matter how "justified" you were. It's those very feelings that separate us, after all, from that criminal element. It's called a conscience. Thank God most of us are blessed with one.
