There has been a few articles about gun control and of the “Stand Your Ground” law recently. There is of course the Zimmerman case, the case of the Texas father, and now a case of a 14 year old but killing an intruder in Ohio. The question I am proposing is when would you use deadly force? At what point in your mind does it become justified? The law in most States says the deadly force is justified if there is a legitimate and imminent danger of death or great badly harm to you, or an innocent. So States have “Castle Laws” that give you the right to protect property with deadly force. Let me give you a case in point.
A man is home alone and sound asleep, it is about 2am and his family has gone off to visit for the weekend. He is awaken b Let me give you a case in point.
A man is home alone and sound asleep, it is about 2am and his family has gone off to visit for the weekend. He is awakened by a loud noise as if someone is breaking in the door. He opens the nightstand and removes his pistol and heads for the top of the stairs. He observes a man breaking things in his living room. He now had to make a choice on what to do. What would you do? He has not been seen by the intruder at this point.
Confront the intruder
Go back to your room lock the door and call 911
These are your choices pick one, then read on.
The man confronted the other man wrecking his living room. Upon yelling at him to stop, the other man ran up the stairs screaming “What are you doing in my house? I am going to kill you?” The house owner then shot the intruder as he ran up the stairs he died at the scene.
Justified
Unjustified
You make the choice then continue,
As it turns out the intruder was a drunk neighbor who stumbled into the wrong house. Thinking the other man was an intruder he attacked him. He left behind a wife and 2 children. It was ruled a justified, by the courts. This was not a typical situation but one that did and could happen. That is why you need to decide far ahead of time when you would use deadly force.
For me the decision would have been to lock myself in the room and call 911. There is no immediate danger to myself or my family, stuff can be replaced. Had the intruder came up stairs and threatened me with harm there would have been a warning to leave and force would only have been used as a last resort., had they came through the locked door and threaten me with severe bodily injury or death. . I have consciously made the decision that deadly force is a last resort, to protect myself, my family or an innocent for sever bodily harm or death. That is where I draw the line. Once the offender has either been stopped, stopped on their own or fled, the use of force is no longer needed, and becomes unjustified. I will not use deadly force to protect my stuff, I can replace my stuff and it is not worth taking a life over. So when would you use deadly force?
H
