I cannot stress this hard enough.
Joe Biden is offering the most horrible advice - advocating criminally reckless behavior - when he suggested firing a shotgun off into the air to ward off an intruder.
The article below makes me wonder exactly WHEN using a gun to defend yourself in Virginia Beach won't get you arrested, especially since this guy followed Joe's instructions almost to the letter.
Link to the article - click here.
Let's break this down...
According to the report, the victim's dog (who is a fluffy fun security system ONLY on the best of days) starts acting goofy. He follows the dog to the bedroom where he sees two men in black masks crawling in the window. They're armed and tell him to close the door.
Instead of complying, he recognizes a deadly force encounter and retreats to retrieve his home defense firearm, then fires it through the door.
He then opens the door and continues discharging rounds toward the assailants, who flee. No injuries are reported, no additional damage is done, yet the victim is charged with reckless handling of a firearm.
Kudos to the resident for defending himself instead of turning into a puddle of helpless victim, but I can find two big errors in judgement.
"Be sure of your target and what lies beyond." is one of the cardinal safety rules we all must adhere to - without fail. Firing through his door, one could argue he didn't have a clear understanding of the room on the other side of it. The second is the act of going immediately through the door after unloading on it and anyone on the other side, continuing to blind-fire along the way.
However (Devil's Advocate time), if I've got two armed bad guys on the other side of a closed door in my house, they OWN that room and I might assume they don't intend to leave. Tough call, to be sure. Doors are VERY soft cover (if at all) and while it would be tempting to go Call Of Duty on their butts, that closed also offers me time and space to figure out where to go next.
After deciding I want that room back - again, a very questionable call since my stuff is insured - that first round through is very likely to scare a meter of feces out of the bad guys on the other side, if not do real damage.
Even with no duty to retreat, outnumbered and presumably outgunned 2:1 may not offer my best odds for survival or prevailing the fight. But if I go for it and send a curtain of lead their way after going through the door, I'm still responsible for making sure I'm not putting any one else at risk.
Insanely tough call... and what I might assume as an armchair quarterback to be the reason for the ticket.
Fortunately, nobody else was injured and the victim escaped a whole man with his life (and I assume his pooch).
In Colorado, I have no duty to retreat. I am permitted to use any measure of force I deem appropriate - up to and including deadly force - to stop someone who's made uninvited entry into my home and who is or I think may commit another crime and is hurting or is about to harm anyone in my house. I am protected under the law from civil and criminal prosecution for the use of said force.
Even then, barring a knock-down drag-out gun battle, I'm looking for my sights and I need to be sure of what I'm unleashing hell at, even if he or she is on the other side of the wall. Keep that in mind...
In this case (literally), I hope the resident acted inside whatever Castle Doctrine Virginia offers and hope the charges against him are dropped, as long as this story doesn't take any unscrupulous twists or turns. I also hope one or both of the intruders turns up - either through investigation or at a hospital getting pellets dug out of their hide.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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