Man in Arkansas arrested for aggravated assault

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Doug.38PR

Moderator
I saw on FOX news today that a man was arrested for aggrevated assault for defending his home. His house had been broken into multiple times. He rigged a shotgun (or shotguns) loaded with salt at a window that had been broken into the most often and sure enough the bad guy caught a shot of salt.

You don't have a right to keep animals out of your house?

Sheesh. Sounds like some Blue state law.

The poor (not so) innocent criminal didn't have a fair chance. He should have had a fair chance to rob the house and get away.
 
I believe that most states have laws against boobytrapping your home. If his house had been on fire and he was suffocating from the smoke, a fireman may have caught the shot instead of a burglar.

There's a big difference between defending your life and rigging a trap to indiscriminately shoot at whatever comes through a window.
 
The problem isn't that he had a gun and used it to defend himself.

The problem is that he created a "spring gun" and used that to protect property.

There are worlds of difference between the 2 situations.
 
I believe that most states have laws against boobytrapping your home. If his house had been on fire and he was suffocating from the smoke, a fireman may have caught the shot instead of a burglar.

There's a big difference between defending your life and rigging a trap to indiscriminately shoot at whatever comes through a window.
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Now that I can understand. Children crawling around the house playing hide and seek could be another situation which they guy could cause an innocent to be hurt. But still, in my mind, alls well that ends well. I imagine he predicted that the house would be robbed sometime that night and weighed it carefully. I think the charges should be dropped on him with the understanding that the situation could have turned out the opposite way with him killing an innocent person.

The problem isn't that he had a gun and used it to defend himself.

The problem is that he created a "spring gun" and used that to protect property.

There are worlds of difference between the 2 situations.
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This I don't entirely get. What is wrong with defending your property? Perhaps a spring gun, depending on the situation, is not responsible (I admit you would have to be VERY careful in choosing to do it) but it seems the only way short of staying up all night and waiting in person (I knew of a situation in which someone in Houston did this back in 1991 or 1990 when a friend of a high school classmate broke into a house after several times and finally got killed by the homeowner waiting for them. The homeowner did have to explain himself in court....don't know whatever happened)

Yes there is a difference between what ought to be and what the legislatures have written down with all this humbug about not being able to protect property, but just the same as I said, alls well that ends well. Glad the bad guy got salted.
 
A booby trap cant follow the 4 rules of safety.........

In Texas self defense at nighttime is different from daytime. The Property owner gets more leeway in self defense.
 
Spring gun

That law is what started burglar alarm companies. Now ink that banks use might be helpful, as well a well hidden camera triggered by the silent alarm. There are just to many other ways to do it. Now if he had been home and used the gun inside, that MIGHT be a different story, if the other guy was armed. Maybe a sign in the yard; they already took everything on the last break in. Jeesh!
 
This I don't entirely get. What is wrong with defending your property?
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There is no right to use lethal force to defend property. In ANY jurisdiction the use of lethal force is allowed only to protect human life. Setting a spring gun to defend your property is a double no-no. First, it's an unmonitored deadly weapon aimed and ready to fire at ANYONE including an innocent. Second, it's set up to protect property with lethal force.
 
Rob.

Youre wrong, some states allow you to defend property with force.

Also the shot was salt.

going on a limb here maybe the actual shot was removed and replaced with salt to blind a suspect? no idea.
 
In ANY jurisdiction the use of lethal force is allowed only to protect human life.[/QUOTE

I believe that is not completely correct. Alaska and Texas both have laws allowing use of lethal force to protect property. From my limited knowledge both have requirements such as Texas it matters if it is night or day.

Some juristiction also have provisions allowing the use of force for "grave bodily harm" or "maiming"

Overall though MOST juristictions do only allow for lethal force use when life is threatened.

I have never been able to reconcile this concept and then (In some places) the issueing authority asking people how much money or what valuables (diamond merchant) they carry before giving them a CCW :confused:

NukemJim
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A big part of the reason you are legally prohibited from setting a booby trap is what was mentioned above. In an emergency, you might kill or injure rescuers.

If the law just lets somebody go who sets a booby trap, then the word gets out. Most people understand the problem and won't set one. But people do exist who don't get it or couldn't care less about rescue personnel and will set the traps.

It looks to me like they probably tried to charge him with the minimum they could get away with and still keep a deterrent against setting booby traps.

Believe me, there have been a lot of times I wanted to set up such things. And I have what it takes to do a very effective job. But I don't need to be responsible for killing or injuring a fireman or policeman responding to an emergency, let alone be brought to court to defend myself for such a thing after going through whatever problem brought them to my house in the first place.

Staying up all night isn't such a hot idea either if several incidents have already occurred and all that resulted was property theft. You might be considered to be "lying in wait". If you were already awake, it could be asked, then why didn't you call the police when you saw him approaching?

It's pretty cheap to set up an alarm system, particularly one that just alarms locally and doesn't connect to a service. You get your warning without staying up all night. And I doubt anybody would consider setting an alarm lying in wait.

There might be a lot of things related to self-defense that can be changed in the law. But I doubt that booby traps is one of them.
 

So let me take this one step further. Suppose the man in the first post had, instead, gone out and bought or rented a really vicious Rottweiler or Pit-Bull? Could this be considered a booby-trap?

Bob

 
No Rob, a dog, no matter how mean, is not considered a booby trap.

BerettaCougar, the fact that the gun was loaded with rock salt does not make it a non-lethal use of force. It is still lethal force and hence lethal force laws apply. It might not be highly effective lethal force, but it is legally considered as such.

This I don't entirely get. What is wrong with defending your property? Perhaps a spring gun, depending on the situation, is not responsible (I admit you would have to be VERY careful in choosing to do it) but it seems the only way short of staying up all night and waiting in person (I knew of a situation in which someone in Houston did this back in 1991 or 1990 when a friend of a high school classmate broke into a house after several times and finally got killed by the homeowner waiting for them. The homeowner did have to explain himself in court....don't know whatever happened)
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The problem here is the guy was not defending his property, the boobytrap was.

Oh sure, the only way to protect your home at night short of staying up all night is to rig boobytraps with lethal force weapons - NOT.

Let's try this from another angle. How many of the 4 rules of gun handling were violated by setting a boobytrap with a shotgun? Did the owner of the shotgun actually know his target, backstop, and beyond? He may have known the last two, but he sure as hell did not know his target.
 
Having 2 pitbulls inside my house is added security, if anyone is around my property my dogs are at the windows and doors barking like mad...people can see and hear them, if they come inside without permission they'll be in a world of hurt. If they get past them, then they'll answer to 1 of 3 things, an AK, 870 w/ 00 buck or a P99 .40...the owner of the house has to take responsibility, thats why I'm extremely careful about my dogs, and thats why I've done everything I can to insure that they won't ever get out. Now, if you've got a boobytrapped house you have to realize that its irresponsible to begin with. If I'm walking my dog(s) on a leash and another dog off a leash comes charging and my dog bites is it my fault? No, thats what laws are for. But I would probably help pay for any vet bills since I am a huge dog fan and don't like seeing any dog get hurt, even if the owner is a complete idiot. Moral of this story is: :confused:
 
Javalina Booby trap

I knew of a guy out in Alpine Texas who owned a Texaco service station in town, and he had a Javalina he would turn loose inside the station at night.

Smelled like all hell, but he didn't have any problems with burglers after that.
 
No Rob, a dog, no matter how mean, is not considered a booby trap.
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If trained Pit Bulls or Rottweilers are not considered Booby Traps and are legal, then I don't see why a rigged shotgun shouldn't be considered legal as well. Both methods can kill the person doing the crime.

Bob
 
If a fire starts while your dog is home, the dog won't be happy about it. The dog will do one of two things. Be incapacitated or killed in the fire, or haul ass out the door the second it's broken down. No firemen or EMTs or cops will be endangered by it.

The booby trap doesn't have the same operating characteristics.

As I said, I know enough about electronics and sensors to make a pretty nasty booby trap that would be unlikely to ever backfire on ME. And I've had reason to want that sort of protection in a bad way. But since I cannot make one that can distinguish between a burglar or stalker and a fireman, it's never gonna happen.
 
If a fire starts while your dog is home, the dog won't be happy about it. The dog will do one of two things. Be incapacitated or killed in the fire, or haul ass out the door the second it's broken down. No firemen or EMTs or cops will be endangered by it.
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True statemaent for most cases, but you need to tell my dog that. When we were visiting my parents their house caught on fire while we were gone and the first guy in had 60lbs of chow/shepard mix attach to his thigh. Thank god for the thick clothing they wear. He took it well, he was a childhood friend and we all had a good laugh months later.
 
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