What would you do in the home defense scenario?

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BrianBeretta

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What would you do is this home defense scenario

lets say you realize that someone is in your house and you take a defensive position at the top of your stairs. All of a sudden the bad guy appears and you you confront him. Lets say you tell him to freeze and not to move, (also he has no weapon visible, his hands are empty) Lets say that this whole time you are telling him not to move, and he never says a word, no matter what you say to him, and he all of a sundden starts walking up the stairs at you, but he SLOWLY walks up each step one a time coming towards you. he continues to come toward you and ignores any command of yours to stop, yet he has no visible weapon and is not necccesarily charging at you. I know this is not probably the most likely situation, but what would you guys do here? I know that i would say that i couldnt let the guy get close and it would seem that at some point firing could be the only option. Would you fire? but would the bad guy here legally be considered a threat?
 
BG on the stairs not listening...

Once the BG is in position to attempt to take your firearm away from you, he has become a lethal threat, because if he gets the gun away, you are now in jeopardy.

I would do what I could to retreat and to prevent him from coming in further, but if you were backed into a corner, I'd say lethal force is justified once he's close enough to try a gun grab.
 
I believe the legal standard is "reasonably perceived threat of harm," meaning would a "reasonable" individual consider this a threat to his person...

I think you've already answered the question...
 
No weapons showing. Disregarding warnings and commands. Still a few stairs to go. Pop a cap. Preferably a kneecap. Much better than killing him.
 
An intruder who doesn't immediately attempt to flee once he discovers the home he's invaded is occupied is a real, credible, immediate threat to the homeowner and his family. He's SEEKING a confrontation - that makes him a menace.

Shoot to stop - nothing fancy, just a straight center of mass shot. (Ed Brunner - no offense, but popping a kneecap sure sounds like a BIG civil suit will result. Much easier for a miscreant in a wheelchair to win a suit than his next of kin. Still worse, under stress, what if you miss and he reaches you?)

Ugly situation no matter how you look at it.
 
In Texas, it's a little simpler. He is on your property, right? Shoot him, he's a trespasser.

If you wanted to use the defense of life justification, as long as you state that you were in fear of your life, it's a justified shooting.

J. Wise
 
Well...

I wouldn't take any chances on being overpowered or having my gun snatched and used on me. If he's in my home, he's bought and paid for.

If I had seen a weapon in his hand, I probably wouldn't have even given him a verbal challenge; a quick light-up with the maglight for target verification, followed by a quick light-up with the pistol du jour. Fair play is for knights at tourney, not for a lone woman confronting a criminal who is trespassing in her home in the middle of the night.
 
Food for thought:

In Plano, TX a year or two ago, a very tragic thing happened. It was Halloween, and a man was woken up by a banging on his door, when he answered the door (w/ his pistol) an Asian man was standing there wanting to come in and visibly drunk or high. The man warned him several times to "cease and desist," but the man kept coming in and being loud and questionably confrontational (he wasn't obeying the man's requests.)

This is where you say to yourself: "Hmmm... he's not exactly threatening my life, he doesn't have a weapon in his hands, but he's not backing down and now he's trying to get into my house. What do I do?"

The man shot him, dead. He was afraid the man (being drunk) might have a weapon and mean to harm him. The Asian man (as it turned out) was a foreign exchange student who was trying to find the house where a Halloween party was being thrown. In his "state of awareness" he didn't realize he was at the wrong house. This was a very unfortunate and tragic situation. The man who defended his house did not face charges, but will live with his choice to shoot the rest of his life.

J. Wise
 
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