Legal Consequences for drawing your weapon?

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TheDude11487

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First a little back ground on me...then on to my question. I am 21, I live in Texas, and I am new to hand guns. I have hunted all my life with shot guns and deer rifles, but as I mentioned not alot of experience with a hand gun, I apologize if this is a silly question. I don't have a CHL but I am doing research to decide if one is right for me. Ok now enough of my long windedness, on to my question. This is a sceniro I am curious about. Lets say an individual with a CHL is put into that one situation that no one whats to have happen, being forced to draw your weapon. The danger has presented itself and you are in fear of your life, you draw your weapon, and the danger now realizes he is in danger exits without ever forcing you to fire a round, are there any legal consequences for drawing your weapon in self defense if you never have to fire a shot?

Again this is probably a totally newbie question, but hey I am a newbie so I figure why not. I realize this will vary from state to state so you Texas fellas are who I am asking.

P.S. new to the site, love this place, you guys are awsome!
 
If you were justified in drawing your gun then you should be fine. If you were not, then you could be in trouble.

It really is both that simple and that potentially confusing. You most certainly ARE NOT required to shoot if you draw. The obvious extension of that is that you might draw, Mr BG gets scared and runs, you don't shoot. Perfectly justified. On the flip side, if you were not justified in drawing the weapon then, well, it's not justified and you could be in trouble.
 
The danger has presented itself and you are in fear of your life, you draw your weapon, and the danger now realizes he is in danger exits without ever forcing you to fire a round, are there any legal consequences for drawing your weapon in self defense if you never have to fire a shot?
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Yes, there can be. If the authorities feel you were not justified in drawing your gun, you could be charged with a felony (e.g., assault with a deadly weapon) even if you did not fire a shot.
 
Just make sure you call the police immediately. You want to be on record as the "victim".
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+1

If you are witnessed as a MWAG, and do not inform authorities, YOU could now be the perp. Just because you have to produce firearm, does not mean you have to shoot, although the reasons to do so are VERY similar.

You also have to understand that your assailant may be telling another story to the cops. Get your side in ASAP!!
 
Thanks Yall

I appreciate all the responses, like I said I am trying to learn as much as I can before I persue a CHL. All the input is very appreciated!
 
If you were justified in drawing your gun then you should be fine. If you were not, then you could be in trouble.
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The operative phrase there is "should be". The justification of shooting may be decided in a court, where a jury has hours, if not days, to decide what you had to decide in a couple of seconds.

Whether the shooting was righteous or not, the perp or the perp's family can still sue you, and the factors for the civil verdict are a "preponderance of the evidence", not "beyond a reasonable doubt" for the criminal trial.

If I feel my life or a loved one's life is in imminent danger, I'll shoot, and the heck with the legal consequences. i.e., read my tag line.
 
In Texas, the justification for shooting is initially decided by a Grand jury. If they do not "bill" you, you are good to go. If they "bill" you, then you need to defend your position (legally).

Get your CHL; the class will explain all of this (and more).
 
Have yet to have to draw my gun, but have had a couple cases were I put my hand on it to see what was going to happen. The last time wife and I were shopping and some guy came up and put his hand right next to her purse that was on the shopping cart. I was right behind him seeing where his hand was going to go but he just walked away:)
 
There are some other things to consider, you can draw your weapon and not point it at the bad guy. You can draw your weapon and point it at the bad guy.
This seems to be a question of assault or not in the prosecuting attorney's view. And if you get brought in for questioning there is the whole theory of what kind of bullets you have in the gun. Different bullets mean different things. Some states feel some bullets are for self defense and other bullets are designed for death. The bottom line is don't have any witnesses and dead men don't tell their side of the story.

you might try this question here; http://forums.officer.com/index.php
 
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You may not fire it until deadly force is legally justified.
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+1,000

You should also show the LE that you made attempt to retreat.
No shoot should be fire unless you have exhausted all means possible to avoid a confrontation.

I wasn't saying you should not shoot at someone that come in front of you in the dark alley with a 45, I was suggesting confrontations that otherwise can be avoid. Make a call to the local LEA when the issue arise, and do make another call if gun was drawn.
 
No way I'd call the cops...I'm not going to make any kind of admission to a police officer that could later be used against me. So what if the other guy goes to the police? If they want to question me, I'll make sure I'm accompanied by counsel, and I'll tell my side of the story after I've had time to consult with my lawyer. There's no advantage in being the first to go to the cops; it just gives them extra ammunition if they decide to charge you with something.
 
I think this is being made way too complicated.

Situation 1: If a person pulls a weapon without a reasonable threat being made, then the person whom the weapon was pulled upon has every right, and should, call the police and report the incident. That's called "brandishing" and is punishable by law, but more relevantly, is covered in every CCW course and explained why it's not legal.
If the person pulling the weapon disagrees that the other person wasn't a threat, then it goes to court. That's why it's a really good idea to report the incident if you pull a weapon and the other guy disappears. The other guy could always call the police and make a claim that you threatened him with a gun, and he'd be the one with the upper legal hand because he reported it.

Situation 2: You pull a gun during a real threat event and the guy takes off. I would posit that this is probably a way more common scenario than those times when a trigger is pulled.
In that case, call the police because of the criminal attempt on you and get it on record. You'll be helping other people by letting police know about the criminal activity in the area.

The bottom line is that if you are threatened and pull a gun but the bad guy aborts the threat and gits, then good, you didn't have to hurt anyone and you end up safe.
But even if that's the case and you know the BG wouldn't report the incident, you should still let the police know what went on.

The other bottom line is that if you pull your weapon just because you're spooked and you weren't being situationally aware (like when the grocery cart kid comes up behind you to grab a loose cart and you draw on him), then you're flat out wrong and should expect some negative fallout to land on you.

Always being situationally aware will easily keep you on the right side of the law, and safe at the same time.

There are some other things to consider, you can draw your weapon and not point it at the bad guy.
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No way on that one. If I have reasonably determined that I need to draw a weapon on someone, then they are a threat and I'll be aiming at COM as quickly as possible. What happens in the next 1/5 of a second is up to the other guy.
 
Whether or not to call the cops is a separate question.

The basics on weapons use are pretty simple:

You may use deadly force when in fear of losing your life or suffering great bodily injury from criminal (or animal) attack. That's the Texas standard, and it's similar to many other states. There's a slight difference at night where Texas and some personal property is concerned, you need to look that up separately. Texas is weird in that regard.

Back to the basic standard: pulling your gun is "using" your gun. OK? At a minimum it's brandishing unless justified. Very often, you have a situation where you have a legal right to draw (you're in reasonable fear of losing life or suffering great bodily injury) but the moment you pull out Mr. Bangthing, the threat evaporates. This often involves the threat wetting their pants, screaming and (esp. common) running like a bunny.

Been there, done that. :) (With knives, not guns...I was in Kalifornia at the time, now in AZ.)

If this threat vanishes before you can crank off a round, you no longer have justification to fire. Fine.

When the threat is an animal, your actions will be scrutinized less stringently than if the threat is human (sometimes barely human mind you...). Very few cops and/or DAs will gripe at you pulling a gun on an aggressive dog. Crank a round out that goes into somebody's house or something, THEN they get hinky in a hurry. Mind your backstop - always. M'kay?

Now, do you go to the cops?

I've pulled knives in two situations against humans. Cops were involved once, not involved the other time. The time I walked away, it was an aggressive bum with a wrench and I had my brother as a witness. Bum ran off, I thought it was long odds anybody would catch up to him, we jumped in my brother's car and took off. That was about 20 years ago :). You have to make judgment calls on stuff like that. There's a risk either way: if the cops catch you after you split it looks bad but if they do come, the wrong type of cop could make life just as bad practically.

Sorry if anybody's offended by that, but it's the truth. "Leotards" aren't just for yoga instructors.

In the case I was involved in where the cops were involved (relatively long drawn-out mess, somebody else called 'em) the "who's right and who's wrong" thing was REALLY easy to sort out. Homicidal transvestites had tried to kill a guy with hammers which were dripping blood (not mine!). So even in Oakland CA (about as anti-self-defense a hellhole as you can fine anywhere this side of DC or Chitown) I was handed my cutlery back (and I showed up as a witness against the lunatics).

So. Place your bets, take your chances, and for God's sake don't pull a Roscoe (or a knife for that matter) unless it's pretty damn dire.
 
There are some other things to consider, you can draw your weapon and not point it at the bad guy. You can draw your weapon and point it at the bad guy.
This seems to be a question of assault or not in the prosecuting attorney's view.
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You don't need to point the gun at the bad guy to be charged with assault.
 
Call the Police!!!!

Do not say anything other than demographic information and perhaps "I was afraid for my life" and "I want to speak to my lawyer"
 
No way I'd call the cops...I'm not going to make any kind of admission to a police officer that could later be used against me. So what if the other guy goes to the police? If they want to question me, I'll make sure I'm accompanied by counsel, and I'll tell my side of the story after I've had time to consult with my lawyer. There's no advantage in being the first to go to the cops; it just gives them extra ammunition if they decide to charge you with something.
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That is a dangerous theory. The cop on the street generally begins with the assumption that the person who calls 911 is the innocent. Sure, the opinion may change, but only after you've been arrested, possibly charged, for assault. Your gun in confiscated, you spend some time in jail...


Or, you can call 911 and tell them you were just assaulted and that when you drew your firearm the perp retreated. I can promise you that 99+% of the time the responding officer will be prepared and consider you to be the innocent party. He knows that YOU contacted the police. He knows that YOU are a LEGAL firearms owner. The assumption will be that YOU are a law abiding citizen who was attacked.

If the other person calls the immediate assumption will be that you are the BG. That may change, but it will change to this: "How could you have drawn your gun and not thought that it needed to be reported? What are you trying to hide?" instead of you being the good guy.
 
The cop on the street generally begins with the assumption that the person who calls 911 is the innocent.
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That was Ayoob's advice when I took LFI-1, and I still agree with it. Be the first one to call the police. You were the victim. You want them to find the perp and press charges.
 
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