VA Home Defense

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one7685

New member
Does anybody know the laws regarding home defense in Virginia? I was just wondering, if a BG enters your home in the middle of the night and you hear your bedroom door open, you have your gun cocked and locked, can you shoot on sight? or do you have to wait to find out if they have a weapon or attack you?

My personal instinct would tell me to shoot first. It's totally dark in my bedroom and I don't want to find out the hard way that this guy had a gun. I don't want to give him a chance to get me first.

Any opinions or facts on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Sounds like you are down there in free Virginia. There be more than one Virginia, rule number one.

In my VA CHL class the standard advice applied. You are only justified using deadly force if in fear of imminent death or grievous bodily injury to yourself or another.

That's what I remember. My advice, take a class locally and try to get one taught by an older LEO. That officer will likely have some experience with different cases and be able to share with the group.

From the way I was trained I would say no, not with what you have provided. A local instructor with knowledge of the Prosecutors, Judges and LEO may have a different take.
 
That's the reason why I hope I'm never in this situation, so many rules to follow. lol. But let me add one more hypothetical to that, what if I could clearly see that the BG has a gun or a knife, my newborn and wife are in the room with me(true) and there is no escape?
 
If you see a person with a weapon advancing on you, your infant child, and wife that may be a situation calling for resisting with deadly force.

Presumably your bedroom is smaller than an auditorium and the armed intruder is close enough to cause concern.

But seriously, the net is like the chow hall was back when I had hair. You can hear anything and everything online. Va CHL courses can be surprisingly affordable and IME informative.

Another thing, I took my class for CHL and registered So back in '98. Times change.

Back in that day, you were told that if you could not articulate facts and circumstances that would cause a reasonable and prudent person to believe that another had the means, intent, and ability to cause imminent death or grievous bodily harm to you or yours then you had just purchased the large heavy duty butt sling.
 
Howdy one7685 and welcome to the board.

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a lawyer and am NOT giving you legal advice, just the opinion of a private citizen.

Virginia has a "sort of" retreat and a "sort of" castle doctrine based on the case of McCoy V. Commonwealth. Basically the quote from the judge with regard to that that case is as follows...

If the accused is in no fault whatever, but in the discharge of
a lawful act, he need not retreat, but may repel force by force, if need be,
to the extent of slaying his adversary. This is justifiable homicide in
self-defense. But if a sudden fight is brought on, without malice or
intention, the accused, if in fault, must retreat as far as he safely can,
but, having done so and in good faith abandoned the fight, may kill his
adversary, if he cannot in any other way preserve his life or save [980]
himself from great bodily harm.
Click to expand...

Or in other words, it is preferable that you should try to retreat but if you can't and if you didn't start the trouble, you have every right to protect yourself if you have a reasonable fear for your life or safety.

Personally I think I'd be pretty concerned over the intent of anyone breaking into my house but then again you have to judge each situation for itself.
 
A lot really depends on your location in Virginia. I live in a small/medium sized town. I asked the Sheriff's department hypothetical questions regarding self-defense. Many answers were by-the-book, but a few took me by surprise. There are gray areas in which use of deadly force would not be questioned given certain circumstances even if the BG didn't show a deadly weapon. When you have seconds to decide on a course of action, you don't have time to assess everything around you.

For example, you are awaken by a smash of a window. You take your firearm and see what the deal is. As you approach the living room, a large BG starts charging you and yelling. Now, it may be dark, he is 15 feet away coming at you full force. You fire and kill him in self-defense. Chances of you being charged is slim to none. That is one scenario I asked the officer:

ME: "Would I be charged for excessive force?"
HIM: "Most likely no."

And yet the BG did NOT have a weapon.

You cannot predict what can happen in any situation where you need to use your weapon. You can run scenarios in your head until you get a headache, but it would be the one scenario you didn't think of that would happen.

Basically what I got from talking to the officer is to use your best judgment in that situation. Remember, you have seconds to decide.
 
Well I guess there's no real clear cut way to decide what to do in this case. I guess if this ever happens, (and I hope it never does) I'll decide if i think my family is in imminent danger and go from there. Hopefully I'll have done the right thing according to the law. I'm also going to take a class.

Thank you guys for all your input.
 
+1 on location matters. I have lived in Roanoke, Prince William County, Fairfax County, City of Alexandria, and Ferrum. Way up in the Hills you can exercise your rights without too much fear.

City of Alexandria - if the local gendarmes can Jam you they will. True whether you believe it or not. Not all bad apples, but enough in there to taint the barrel so to speak. Fairfax too.
 
Then you may have been one of my patrons when I briefly worked at the Macdonald's there. Thank you for your support :D

I ended up working at Shredded Products until I returned to Occupied Virginia and took programming classes.

Love that part of the country. Hope to get back before they compost me.
 
I've taken a couple HD and SD courses here in VA. From what I gather you still always need to identify the threat first, no matter which state you live in. One of the main reasons to get a GOOD flashlight separate from your firearm. Little Susie could just be up for a drink of Kool Aid at 3am.

VA doesn't have 'castle doctrine' just yet, but we don't have to cower in the furthest corner of the house before defending ourselves like in some states.

But honestly everyone can armchair quarterback all they want. If the event actually happens, all bets are off and you'll have to use your best judgement at the time.
 
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