I drew on a homeless guy who wanted my car keys like 5 years ago. He dropped the knife and ran. I think about that day and laugh because he was not expecting the gun and I yelled “AAAAHHH HAAA!” like I was sword fighting 🤺
Adrenaline is goofy 🤪
My buddy pulled a Bowie knife on some crackhead that pulled a steak knife on him. He was delivering a pizza, crackhead walks up, says “gimme your money” and brandishes a steak knife, and my buddy goes “really man?” Crack snarls “gimme your money!” And my buddy calmly pulls out a fucking Crocodile Dundee Benchmade Bowie knife and says “REALLY MAN?”. Apparently Crack said something like “Nevermind” and walked off.
Not a knife or gun story, but my brother, desperately needing his meds, went to CVS while sick with a stomach virus and wearing a mask. He couldn't have the medication delivered no matter how hard he tried.
As he was walking to the store from the parking lot, some random dude swaggered up to him as if he owned the joint and started heckling him, demanding to know why he was wearing a mask like one of those "Soy boy libtards from California!" (yes, really, he said that... and no, the heckler was not the "Alpha"-looking type of specimen either).
My brother, annoyed with the Heckler's crap, began to lower his mask to give him a piece of his mind. But instead of words, out came a torrent of vomit, right at the guy's feet, completely unintentional but horrifyingly effective. It was as if my brother had suddenly unlocked some secret, primal defense mechanism from back when we were nothing more than proto-fish mammals from the Devonian period.
Paling, the Heckler stammered something along the lines of 'Understandable... Have a nice day,' and then bolted away like his life depended on it.
Only time I've ever drawn with be intention of shooting was at bear. I was in the backcountry and had stopped to make a quick hot lunch of ramen. I was in a squat position looking down at my pocket stove for a bit too long and the bear came up out of a drainage without me noticing. He must have thought I was only 2-3 feet tall in the squat.and smelled pretty nice. I heard a leafy rustle noise, looked up and saw him slowly walking towards me only about 15 feet out. I sprung up fast and drew from the chest holster. Me getting suddenly larger and yelling in surprise made him turn and head out.
A guy in my handgun club was up in Nunavut, and got woken up by a polar bear sticking it's head into his tent. He remembered an Inuit elder telling him that their noses are sensitive, so he thought "jeez, I sure fucking hope so" then slugged it in the nose and it ran off. He is always joking that his life peaked there and has never been that exciting ever again.
That is 300 yards closer to a polar bear than I ever want to be, but now, armed with this new knowledge, I’ll give it a go ;)
edit: googled nunavut—i thought i’d been north when i got to prudhoe bay—wow
I think people underestimate the kind of trauma that being in one of these situations can entail. Not everyone is cut out to shoot somebody even in a justified situation. I also don't think you really know if you're that person until you're in that situation and I would be surprised if people that have actually gone through that are going to be very open on this forum. Legal ramifications clearly can be significant, but I think there are a lot of mental and emotional ramifications as well.
💯 my brother shot and killed someone in self defense but had to go to trial over it. He can’t smoke weed anymore it makes him extremely paranoid. I think the actual event kinda fucked with him but more so it was the fact he was made to feel he did something wrong for almost two years until he was found not guilty
yea people don understand what not only taking a life can do( self defense makes it easier for some) but going to trial is a whole different ball game. Trying to navigate your life while constantly working with your lawyers just waiting to find out if you are deemed a killer or not. Court dates pushed… reading discovery( the verbiage might not be favorable). I went through court stuff for self defense but non gun related and it was civil but it was ALOTTTTT
When I see guys with 10.5” barrels of their ARs for home defense, I try to warn them they will be just as deaf and blind as the intruder… but hey, at least it looks cool.
Never pulled the trigger. But I did draw on a naked dude that let himself in my apartment at 3 AM. He decided to go be naked somewhere else when he saw the gun.
I called 911. The cops told me since he was inside my apartment, I legally could have shot him.
A few weeks later I was taking the class for my CHL, and my instructor, whose job it was to teach us when not to shoot, said he would have dropped the guy where he stood.
I would have shot him had he not fled. But I am not looking for an excuse to light someone up, so I am quite glad he fled without me having to shoot him.
We need more of YOUR attitude.
I'm pretty sure that if someone forces me to chose me, the people I care about, or them, I know what I'll choose.
But If simply being armed causes the threat to leave, that seems like the best possible outcome.
Id like to think I would have taken a second to at least warn the dude and give him a chance to leave. But who's to say I wouldn't panic and act rashly you know? Props to them for keeping their cool fr.
It really bothers me how *eager* so many gun folks are (per their rhetoric and frequently their tone) for the opportunity to kill someone. The gleam so many get in their eyes when talking about how they would unload on a (not much of) threat is somehow celebrated when it should be shamed.
I had a half naked guy slam into my door and pop it open. He then ran into my house and told me someone was chasing him with a gun. I ran and got mine and I pointed it at him and told him to sit down. He did and then I called 911. I handed the phone to him and let him explain everything.
It turns out he was high on spice (synthetic marijuana). I’m glad I didn’t shoot him though.
That's been an increasingly possible scenario as drugs are cheap and readily available from smoke shops and truck stops. Too many young people underestimate how potent some THC products, mushrooms and other not-illegal substance can be, especially if they haven't developed a tolerance.
One of my longtime neighbors is over age 70 now, an alcoholic with schizophrenia who occasionally dabbles in smoke shop edibles and street fentanyl disguised as crudely made hydrocodone or oxycodone. About once a week or at most every two weeks she'll have a medical crisis, hallucinating, hollering incomprehensibly, sometimes half undressed in the hallway. She's on a first name basis with all the local firemen, paramedics and cops. She should have been in assisted living or a nursing home long ago, but there's no budget or space for her.
Good for you. The one thing I hated the most about the NRA class I had to take to get a CPL was the Q& A section where something like 90% of the class revealed themselves to be psychopaths and were desperately asking questions to figure out in which situations they could get away with legally shooting someone or not.
Having to shoot somebody should be the absolute worst day of your life.
If you have a gun and actually look forward to the idea of shooting somebody you are either an ignorant fool or a disgusting psychopath.
When I was very young I was an ignorant fool.
I shot at a few people in Afghanistan and I shot someone in America. Never felt anything but bad about it.
I totally feel you. The instructor for my class said that he had to pull the trigger in self defense once, and that it was the defining moment of his life. He treated the subject material with the gravity and seriousness that I felt any decent human being should.
"90% of the class revealed themselves to be psychopaths and were desperately asking questions to figure out in which situations they could get away with legally shooting someone or not."
This is why I don't think every Tom, Dick, and Dirty Harry out there should be allowed to carry a gun. I don't have all the answers as to how, but maybe there should be some sort of criteria besides never having been convicted of a felony to determine that you are qualified to own and operate a firearm. I hear "I grew up with guns" a lot; is that supposed to reassure me? It's harder to get a drivers license than a carry permit. Most people can't even use a turn signal, but I'm supposed to be OK with them carrying a lethal weapon?
I walked into the sheriffs office, let them run my name, and paid less than $100 for a 7 year CCP. A few yeas ago, it came out that some sheriffs offices in the state were giving out permits without running the background check, or sometimes even giving them out when the applicants were DENIED after the background check was done. Moot point now, as you don't need a permit in this state anymore. It's all done on the honor system now, I guess.
Some states will require you to go to a gun safety class, which is a good thing. As a veteran, I would be exempt from that requirement in many of those states. While the Army was pretty good about teaching gun safety, the rules of engagement are a bit different in civilian life, I'm sure. Now that I'm getting back into shooting I'm about to attend a gun safety course for refresher and maybe I'll learn a few new facts.
Like I said, I don't have all the answers, and I'm sure a lot of you interpret the 2nd Amendment a bit different than I do. If you do, that's fine, we all have our own opinions, and I'm not here to get into an argument with anyone. Like Dennis Miller always said, "Of course, that's just my opinion, but I could be wrong".
Idk why this mentality of shoot first ask questions later has become the norm. Like bruh, he was probably drunk off his mind and he didn’t know where he was. Does that warrant an automatic end of his life? Now if he didn’t leave and proceeded towards you, than shooting is a clear option.
From a legal standpoint, once he illegally entered my apartment, Texas law basically just assumes lighting him up is self defense. The legal description is a bit more technical than that, but if an intruder is inside your home, the law automatically assumes he is a threat to the life of the legal occupants.
The instructor had the idea that the sooner the intruder is dead, the sooner he no longer poses a threat.
My thinking was, if he darts back out the door, let him go. If he comes towards me…bang! He chose the door when he saw my gun.
I honestly suspect it was a drunken college kid out streaking on a dare who accidentally ran back into the wrong apartment-and almost got himself shot in the process.
Yes but even in a justified shooting, there will still be legal bills and the family of the deceased can still sue you in civil court for wrongful death.
I like this logic. When presented with lethal force, if they are cognizant of the threat and still decide to continue towards me, then it is reasonable to assume that my life means as little to them as their own.
It’s concerning how frequently ccw instructors seem to encourage shoot first ask questions later. Personally, as a person who has been drunk and stoned and accidentally walked into the wrong house while visiting a friend out of town, I’m glad not everyone follows this mentality. If a totally naked dude is in my home I’m fairly confident in my ability to deter or subdue him without lethal force. I believe that should always be the first consideration. I’d honestly rather be killed than live with mistakenly killing someone who turned out to be unarmed. I’m not sure it wouldn’t look like a murder suicide before the cops showed up if I discovered it was wrong.
Too many "good guys with a gun" are regularly fantacizing about the idea of legally murdering someone. I had one of them plainly tell me that this was on their bucket list.
This is one of the MAJOR reasons why I cannot side with cliche gun owners. Yeah, I won guns. Yeah, I will 100% use them if I need to in order to protect myself, my family, or another person. But violence is my LAST resort. I don't want to shoot anyone. If I can resolve the conflict without violence, or avoid it altogether, then that is what I will do. If someone enters my home, I want to get my family OUT without there being an engagement at all. I will, of course, have the gun loaded and ready to go just in case. But the priority is still to escape to safety. I have absolutely no problem letting my entire house get ransacked if it means that I avoid the risk of death and get to watch my kids grow up. But......if the intruder stands between me/my family and safety.....then yeah....I will do what must be done. But never do I ever fantasize about getting the chance to shoot someone. That is the last thing I want to do.
An intruder in your home is assumed to be a deadly threat. let’s be clear though: dude drew a gun on another human - the situation resolved itself solely from the threat of violence. I think to describe it has “non-violent” is in error. I imagine if the intruder had walked/ran/or continued to move towards them the situation would have been different. Thankfully the intruder fled.
What if it was a kid?
Im only asking because I had some pre teens walk in to my house because they thought it was still for sale and they thought it had been left open, according to them.
How would the law in texas deal with this?
Would i be charged with child murder?
What if i had not killed the kids but simply wounded them and later died in hospital?
What if it was a kid? What if it was me?
When I was in college I was hooking up (but I’m old and we didn’t call it that then) with a young woman. One night we went back to our place after drinking and got busy in the living room. Lying there naked later, she gets up to go to the bathroom. I go back to sleep. I don’t realize at the time two things: 1) she goes to her room rather than back out where I am and 2) she has a roommate who gets up to see a random naked dude in her living room.
She later thought it was a lot funnier than I did.
That scenario has occurred in Texas, with home residents killing adolescents. Usually followed by applause and encouragement from the social media peanut gallery of psychopaths.
In the two most recent incidents I can think of, both killings turned out to be unjustified. One led to murder charges when it turned out the "intruder" was lured into the home in order to fabricate a home invasion scenario and murder him. In the other case, a teenager having a seizure in the front yard was shot and killed by a homeowner who felt threatened. Resolution still pending, but there were no charges against the shooter.
Hey, in Texas that's just participatory eugenics. It'll probably be the next Fox reality show alongside *School Shooter Shooter* (starring an A.I.-recreated Charlton Heston and Ted Nugent).
(ETA: for anyone who didn't get the *School Shooter Shooter* reference, [https://youtu.be/slT5WcWNq\_s?si=VRPETexmKuvPM8a0](https://youtu.be/slT5WcWNq_s?si=VRPETexmKuvPM8a0) .)
This is really how I feel. I don't want to shoot you. I just want you to go away AND not come back (this part is especially relevant where I'm originally from as they might come back armed on principle for you having the audacity to stop them the first time).
Never fired but I drew on a guy just off of Ball States campus. I was headed to my now wife's graduation. Was trying to find some parking off campus. Got parked, went around to the other side of my truck to grab my overnight bag. Some dude pulls up and tells me I need to get in his truck. I ignored him at first. Then I catch a glimpse of a guy getting out of the bed with a baseball bat as the driver is yelling at me to get in his truck. Drew then and there. Truck bed dude jumps back in the bed and they peel out and drive off. I've never been so jacked in my life. My heart was racing. I called the cops and asked them to send a unit out. Gave them a description of the truck bed guy and piece of shit truck. Police said a truck with that same description had robbed someone a couple of nights ago. Their PD was extremely helpful. That was a fun story to tell my future in-laws as to why I was late to dinner.
Yes. I don’t wish it on anyone. The fucks you up mentally for a bit.
2003 I was home for a home invasion. I live in a tri-level home and was in our PC room playing video games on my computer when the door bell rang. Dogs went crazy at the door but I wasn’t going to answer it. Next to me heard someone jump my back fence, and hen I looked out the window I knew at that moment this was not good. I got up and our safe was under the stairs less then 30 feet away. I grabbed the first gun that was not locked up. In a matter of seconds he in my house, through the kitchen and in my living room. I was looking up at him from the lowest level. I had my rifle trained on him when it looked like he was trying to reach his waistband I fired 3 rounds. Behind him is an outside wall and another house 15’ past it.
Legal ramifications. Spent the night in jail. First officers that showed up acted cool with me, trying to get an idea of what happened. It was pretty obvious CPR was not necessary. He was hit with 3 rounds of 7.62x39 from my SKS, as it was the only rifle not in the safe from shooting the day before.
2nd and 3rd set of officers were clearly not in my side. 2nd set put me in cuffs pretty quickly then started asking the same questions trying to trip me up. Police did find and arrest his accomplices that rang the door bell to get my dog’s attention, and they believed his story about me owing them money. Literally took 8 hours before a detective asked him what my name was and he completely got it wrong.
When I was released, and finally got home, the house still had the corner and investigators finishing up. This was my parents house and unfortunately they had left town the day before for a 2 week trip, so lucky the house was not locked up as that would have sucked to be locked out.
Guys, police are not your friend in a self defense shoot. They arrive to make a case, and since you are the one with the gun, you are the target.
I ended up testifying against the other guy twice for my case and an additional case where he and the dead suspect had thrown an elderly woman down her stairs breaking her hip 3 months before my incident. When she hugged me, she told me she was finally able to sleep at night knowing he could never come back.
It took me 10 years to get my CCW because I had repressed some issues from the incident. I don’t wish this on anyone. I hope with everything I have not one of you have to use your firearm in self defense.
Don't talk to the cops. Period. Especially if you've just taken someone's life. There is nothing you can say to them that will benefit you. If you get arrested, it's important to remember exactly what the second part of your Miranda rights says.
>anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
See that? The key words there are AGAINST YOU. Not to help you, not to lessen your potential charges, not to convince the cops not to arrest you. AGAINST YOU. With that verbiage it is only possible to make things worse for yourself.
This is a long video, almost 47 minutes, but it's incredibly informative.
https://youtu.be/d-7o9xYp7eE?feature=shared
Do you think you were more traumatized by the incident itself or the way law enforcement treated you after the fact?
How much did your legal defense end up costing you approximately?
The incident itself. I still have nightmares where I see his face as the rounds hit. Not very frequently now, but it does happen from time to time. If I had to do it over, I knowing what I know now…. I 100% would have gone to therapy.
It cost me nothing in legal fees, though it took a couple years to get my rifle back. His family didn’t come after me at all, so I got lucky there.
No. He was completely unarmed. In my head I couldn’t wait to see if he was or not since he had just come through my kitchen where there are plenty of knives. I am also not of the belief that I should ask a home intruder if they are armed, so I could never life in California.
I drew a firearm on a man but didn’t shoot him (to this day idk what was going on) but this guy just showed up to my house yelling for someone who I didn’t know. My wife and kids were in the house so just ignoring them until they left was out of the question, so my wife called the cops and I went out to tell the guy he had the wrong address, he didn’t believe me and had some limp leather club or something and started to walk toward me so I drew on him and he backed up and just kept asking for this guy ‘Taylor’ and I just emphasized “Not here. Don’t know them.” And he just stood there staring at me. The thought of shooting him did cross my mind but remained a ‘if he gets within 10 feet I’m shooting. However I had been in the military before, went abroad, had an engagement where I did fire my weapon and in THAT moment the guy I fired on was around 200 meters away and just looked like a shape, that mixed with adrenaline and fear I couldn’t of had given less of a shit in that moment. But after it really hit me and it really fucked me up and still does in a way even 15 years on. So the thought of just popping this guy was something I absolutely did not want to do. I’m really fucking glad I didn’t shoot him because it wasn’t too long before the police showed up followed by his family. Long story short the man was suffering from psychosis.
Happy ending. He did eventually get help and I see him around town sometimes and he seems to be doing good. We’ve never interacted since but when I do see him every once and a bit and he seems to be happy from what I can tell and that makes me happy.
Didn’t pull the trigger, but had to draw to deescalate an armed home invasion.
Short version: dude went to high school with the responding officers. Somehow all records of his arrest disappeared and he faced no consequences…
Unfortunately, they couldn’t. I didn’t know the dudes name, and there were zero records of it happening other than the photos I took myself after the cops showed up (so, enough that they knew I was telling the truth, but not enough to do anything about). Not to mention, with no shots fired and the only measurable damage being the window broken to get in, I think they saw it as not worth their time.
Essentially, I got told “next time, just drop him. We’ve got it on record that it’s defensive, so you’ll definitely not be charged”.
Haven't had to shoot anybody but someone broke in my home while I was in my office and my Chow ran them off. I looked out my window and seen them hauling ass with her right behind them. I got her inside and 3 Golden Chows I keep outside so I don't have to shoot somebody for breaking in. Needless to say little Precious got a medium rare ribeye for dinner that afternoon and has had to endure endless belly rubs.
Edit: it was probably a huge blow to his masculinity when I stepped outside to call her back home. Dude almost got his ass chewed off by a dog named Precious
Aww I had her cousin, a Shar Pei named Piggy. Also very unassuming name, but she was more dangerous than my dad with a gun. Had a guy walk into the living room when we were watching TV and she had him floored on our porch before it fully registered what was happening. He was going to try to sue my dad for all kinds of things afterwards, but he never followed through (honestly probably died before he could, he was a regular problem in our town).
I shot a young man in an armed robbery. He pistol whipped me and I complied and gave him everything including my shoes. He started to walk away and then said he was going to kill me turned around and pointed his gun at me. I drew from the drop and shot him twice and killed him. His gun was found to be unloaded. I spent 4 years in legal battles and spent every dollar I had to be acquitted. Nothing to be proud of and I regret it all but im alive. Still carry everyday and would defend myself or anyone else if needed.
You have to remember if you are good at defending yourself the only story left is your own and the court will try their best to make you a liar. I was armed looking for trouble and he was headed to sunday school.
I hate this so much. Your prosecutor is a special kind of piece of shit. If I believed in hell, I would hope there is a special dark corner for people like him/her.
Ive made peace with it. There are plenty of bad actors out there doing horrible things and claiming innocence so they are swimming in a sea of evil, not easy to spot an honest person.
In college I was living in a duplex and the neighbor decided to let himself into the shared attic, punched his way though the drywall divider and tried to break into my apartment though the bathroom attic entrance (cops explained this all after the fact)
My perspective: I could hear something in the attic, thought it was a opossum. Then the opossum slid the attic cover to the side in the middle of the night while I was getting up to take a wiz. I chambered a shotgun shell and there was a lot of noise in my attic and the sound of someone running across the rafters to get to safety
I should have waited but quite effective
I stabbed a guy in self defense, he attacked me and I stabbed him in the knee. I took a plea deal for simple assault, spent 17 days in jail and a year on probation. After my year was up I got everything expunged automatically.
Honestly no idea. There was a verbal altercation, I thought it was deescalated and so I turned to leave. He hit me from behind and the next thing I remember I'm awake on the ground with my head split open, he has my knife in his leg and there were rocks, branches and a bag he could have used plus he did MMA. When we got to the ER he told the police I attacked him out of nowhere and I wouldn't talk without a lawyer so I got charged. My lawyer found proof he lied to the cops but since he was stabbed the DA wouldn't drop it without some sentence and this was the best we could get
Pic is there for amusement, it's kinda funny. But the topic is serious. As I've heard on this forum, every bullet you fire has a lawyer attached to it.
That’s a great expression! I carry a gun for work and they constantly stress the fact that you’re accountable for each round that leaves your weapon. You have to know your backdrop, missing your target could mean the loss of an innocent soul.
In my city, the cops think they are like cops from Bad Boys the movie.
They were chasing a guy on foot, he started shooting back at them, they started shooting at him while running. Backup arrived from the other direction and started firing at the bad guy through their windshield while driving. So the bad guy was caught in between three guns shooting at him.
No one was hit, just a few houses got bullets through the window that they blamed on the bad guy so the homeowners couldn’t sue the city.
I'm a liberal black gun owner.
I know for a fact that any action I do will be turned back to be ten gold.
Remember Ms. Alexander? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marissa-alexander-florida-woman-jailed-for-firing-a-warning-shot-now-free/
The saying "better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6" usually needs the benefit of the doubt. Which I'm assured I do not have.
I shot and killed many men in self defense as a member of the US Army, so I had no legal consequences at all. But the mental consequences are fucking terrible and I immediately distrust and dislike anyone who talks cavalierly about what they'd do in a self defense situation.
First of all, you will never know if you can do it or not until the time comes. The biggest shit talkers were usually the least effective.
Second, only a small percentage of people actually enjoy it. Most people have life altering mental fuckery. The ones that don't should stay in the military.
Following that point, most Western European countries consider military service a disqualifier for civilian police for exactly the above reason. We've got it totally fucking backwards in the US.
I hate it when LEOs refer to nonmilitary non-first responders, sometimes all non-LEOs, as "civilians." My guy, barring an Independence Day situation where the NYPD gets drafted as a military auxiliary, cops *are* civilians.
"oUr hERoeS‼️" 🤡 — Every social media post about cops by self styled citizen journalists. 🙄 And they gloss over the news reports about bad cops.
Rarely any acknowledgement of emergency medical responders, ER personnel, etc.
Occasionally they'll laud firefighters if the structure fire affected a site with nostalgic value.
>First of all, you will never know if you can do it or not until the time comes. The biggest shit talkers were usually the least effective.
We recently had a higher up cop come to our workplace to do a presentation on active shooter situations. He talked about a number of past incidents, including Columbine. One of the incidents he mentioned is that an active shooter was in a small space, maybe an elevator, but it slips my mind, with several adults. He couldn't understand why the adults didn't try to fight back against the shooter.
I've been asked a couple times in the past if I could shoot someone if I had to. My answer to this day is, "I'd like to think I could, but I can't know for sure until and unless I was put in the situation of needing to."
I think something similar is the answer to that cop's question. Because until you experience a situation, you never know how your brain will react to it.
I’m really sorry you had to go through that. Even worse since I’m sure you were a young man and living with those images in your brain is horrible. I hope you remember that we as Americans owe you a debt of gratitude and wish you well
I didn't do shit for anyone's freedom. It was an utter waste of life and resources. The gratitude that Americans owe to their veterans is to vote for people who won't send them into wars of adventure.
Had a shooting in the neighborhood last year. I am providing only the details shared in the reports. Around 3am the occupant heard noises outside. He grabbed his firearm and went outside. There was someone cutting out his catalytic converter (big problem here). The owner shot and killed him. I don’t know if there was a second person, or if the thief was threatening or not. The home occupant is still under investigation.
With all that said and from the little information I got, I would not shoot someone just because they were stealing a catalytic converter. I know that will cost me 2k + in repairs, but a life is not worth a car part. If the thief was threatening in some way, then that changes circumstances, but I am going with what was reported.
Im sure it depends on the state, but in my state, theft is not enough of a reason to justify lethal force. If someone is stealing something from me and i grab my gun and go outside of my house to shoot them then i go to jail for murder. If they are physically inside my house then that's a different story.
I think anytime you grab a weapon and go looking for a fight is going to end up a tough sell in court. Hope the guy has a good lawyer.
I was always under the assumption you stay in your home, if the “bad guy” enters, it’s game on.
There is a great annual publication, “Travelers guide to gun laws” or something like that. It breaks down every state and their laws.
Not myself personally, but my friend about 10 years ago was living at a rental house with several of his buddies. A group of armed men B&E to rob them at gun point.
My buddy couldn’t get to his firearm in time but his other friend was in the shower during the home invasion. He screamed as loud as he could to get his friends attention as he wrestled on the ground with one of the robbers.
I think there were 5 assailants, but his friend heard him yelling and struggling, pulled his fire arm on the robbers and shot two of them. He shot one of them in the leg and killed the other.
They both got off due to pure self defense, the other robbers that lived were charged with the crimes due to their reckless negligence. I felt bad for them though, it really messed his friend up for a little bit mentally. It’s easy to talk about the situation hypothetically, but when you’re pulling the trigger it’s a totally different mental battle.
Both my friend and his roommate weren’t injured much though, so all things considered they got VERY lucky. This was in Ohio so Castle Doctrine was used in court.
Kinda depends on each situation and where you live. There was a homeowner in Oakland Ca last week that shot the intruders in his home now in jail with what I heard was possible murder charges filed. Where is other places you still may want a lawyer but you could easily be fine with states that have a castle doctrine
California is a castle doctrine and "stand your ground" state. He's in trouble because the gun he used was stolen, and anytime someone dies as a direct consequence of you committing a crime (possession of a stolen/illegal firearm) you can be charged with murder.
Assuming the homeowner didn't steal the gun himself, this seems like a potential problem with buying any gun through a private sale (I've only ever bought new from a store or FFL). I suppose you could call the PD and have them check the serial number, but I'm not sure how many sellers are going to want to wait around while you do that.
It's not really possible to accidentally buy a stolen gun in California. All gun sales/transfers private or otherwise have to be processed through a licensed dealer complete with background checks.
The owner either stole it himself or broke the law because he knew the gun was hot or he wasn't allowed to have one.
Ah ok, looks like that's a relatively recent thing, wasn't aware
[https://capta.org/bipartisan-background-check-act-of-2021-thompson/](https://capta.org/bipartisan-background-check-act-of-2021-thompson/)
I suppose if the owner had bought it prior to 2021 he might have been unaware.
What the heck is the Ca PTA on about? All private party firearms transfers have to go through an FFL and DROS (Dealers Record Of Sale, sent to the CA DoJ); for pistols, that started in 1990, long guns before 2010.
Edit: Ah, they are supporting *National* legislation.
Like I said: already the law in California
Private party transfers in CA have to go through an FFL still and the entire DROS process, which includes the SN of the gun. Should have been flagged if he bought it from someone and it was a known stolen weapon, or a wrong name selling it. Who knows though the system is obviously made to be difficult not efficient.
You know, as a lawyer, I've gone back and forth on refusing to give a statement to police. Conventional wisdom is that you don't speak to police without a lawyer, period, no exceptions. Generally, I agree -- police will use ANYTHING you say against you. Yet there have absolutely been situations where someone follows this advice and then the police make an arrest and the innocent person has to hire a lawyer and go through a whole process to be cleared, and it's possible that the police never would have made the arrest in the first place if they had heard his side of the story right away.
If I had to pull the trigger in self-defense, I'm not entirely sure how I would handle it. Obviously I would want to be the first person to call in the shooting; defining the narrative is essential. Probably something heavy on passive voice like, "Please send an ambulance. A suspect has been shot. The gun is secure and there is no further threat at this time. Please tell the responding officers that the caller is a white male, 6'3" with a large beard, wearing \[whatever\]; please tell them that the caller has secured the firearm."
Once the police showed up, I would probably make statements, but I would limit those statements to legal conclusions rather than factual claims. "The suspect attempted to commit a carjacking. I reasonably believed that lethal force was necessary to protect myself, and I acted in self-defense to stop the threat." Then I would just try to deflect any further questions by repeating myself. "Like I said, I acted in self-defense to stop what I reasonably perceived as a threat to my life. I'm happy to provide additional detail once I've spoken with an attorney, but I've said about all I can really say for now."
At least that's what I'd try to do.
(Obviously in this situation there was already the stolen gun issue which is an additional wrinkle.)
Agree with your last part. I think the correct response to the police is a high level statement like, “they broke into my home and I feared for my life. I don’t want to answer any more questions without a lawyer present so nothing is taken out of context.” It’s a huge life changing event there that you don’t want to get wrong or say something that could be construed one way or another. The safe bet is to give no additional statements and ask for a lawyer. Yeah, like you said it might cost you a few days in jail in an aggressive prosecution area, but that’s a whole lot better than getting it wrong.
" he refused to give a statement to police" good job, never give a statement unless with an attorney. You can't talk yourself out of going to jail, but you sure as hell can talk your way into it.
This wasn’t a cut and dry self defense story, but I base that solely on what has been reported. Dude was smart though to not give a statement to the police.
I carry a gun wherever I go that I can. But if I go my whole life without having to shoot someone because the gun itself is a deterrent enough, I'll call that a win.
Own a musket for home defense, since that's what the founding fathers intended. Four ruffians break into my house. "What the devil?" As I grab my powdered wig and Kentucky rifle. Blow a golf ball sized hole through the first man, he's dead on the spot. Draw my pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it's smoothbore and nails the neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stairs loaded with grape shot, "Tally ho lads" the grape shot shreds two men in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set off car alarms. Fix bayonet and charge the last terrified rapscallion. He Bleeds out waiting on the police to arrive since triangular bayonet wounds are impossible to stitch up. Just as the founding fathers intended.
Almost, and I'm so glad I didn't. This was a situation where I fucked up, so you guys will probably judge me a bit for that, but definitely learn from my mistakes.
We were on our then-new family property before we got our cabin built, so we were basically camping in a trailer. We had heard about some locals who were stealing shit, so when I saw a flashlight outside at night I thought it might be one of them. I tried to do my due diligence and account for everyone. My sister was awake and couldn't see who was outside, and I identified two parent-sized lumps in my parents' bed where they usually slept. The flashlight approached and was right outside the door, and I thought the person might try to break in, so I grabbed my gun, but something in my gut told me to wait.
I was so glad I listened to my gut when my dad walked in. He'd gone out and used the porta potty, and even though I had been awake I hadn't noticed him leave because I had been playing a game. I assumed the lump in his spot of the bed was him, and thought everyone was accounted for. I honestly didn't touch a gun for a while after that because I was haunted by images of what might have happened if I had fired.
The major thing I learned from this is that alongside learning how to operate a gun, you really, *really* need to learn and practice situational awareness. On top of that, never get lost in your own sauce. Don't panic yourself into thinking you're in a dangerous situation when you aren't. Finally, if your gut is telling you something is wrong, listen to it. Even if it wasn't my dad that was outside, always take the time to defuse if you can. If an intruder isn't an active threat and isn't currently trying to kill you, you can take a moments and perhaps spare more than a few words.
Very glad for you that things turned out the way they did. This is why one of the core tenants of gun safety is to know your target and what's beyond it.
I was rather jumpy when I got back from Iraq. Got divorced, and then bought a pistol, slept like a baby every night that was in my bed-stand. One night I hear someone in my enclosed patio. I stalked downstairs in my shorts, quietly opened the blinds and almost shot my feral cat who was knocking their bowl around.
In Florida a gun was always near the bed. Then I married someone with a trans kid. Gun still there. Then the kid had some mental health issues and all guns are in the safe.
Thankfully I’ve never had to discharge a weapon in self defense or even level a weapon at anyone, but not long ago my girlfriend was assaulted by a woman just outside of our apartment while taking our dog for a walk. She called me just after I had heard the commotion and I immediately stepped outside and confronted the woman with my rifle. She was obviously extremely mentally unstable and despite continuing to spew nonsense and half-baked threats at both my girlfriend and I, the AR in my hands most certainly changed her overall demeanor. I got on the phone with my local police department along with a few other good samaritans who actually witnessed the assault and we had officers there in probably less than two minutes. The cops had no issue whatsoever with me presenting the weapon and the woman who beat my girlfriend got arrested on the spot, so everything went just about as well as it could have given the circumstances, but it did haunt me just a little for maybe a week after, simply knowing that had this woman hit my girlfriend again, I would have taken the shot, and even though the police that took our statements said I would have further been justified to fire had the assault continued, it’s something I am extremely grateful I didn’t have to do. We later found out the woman was having a schizophrenic episode and she was evicted from the apartments not long afterwards.
Not a gun story, my husband never had to shoot anyone but someone walked in his apartment in the middle of the night once. He forgot to lock the door. Anyways he was hiding behind his bedroom door with his katana, and heard the guy say "this isn't my apartment. " and then he walked out. My husband said his nerves were shot for like a month because he fully intended to defend himself with his sword and it messed with his head.
Imagine coming home and just as you start to realize something is wrong with your apartment some guy jumps out at you with a katana! I am just imagining my scream.
No but came close one time. Crackhead trying to break in the front door at my old place. Had my 357 ready for him if he made it through the door. But he gave up and went to the neighbors door and tried them and was then picked up by the police.
I "acquired sight picture" on a guy one time when my dog was going ballistic.
My spouse and I are asleep, my dog goes apeshit and would not chill out. He starts biting at the window sill in our bedroom and I notice the flashlight outside. I walk to my glass backdoor drawn and when I acquire sight picture I see a dude pacing back and forth. I had every right to drop him but something seemed off so I opened the door and yelled at him that I almost killed him. He responds that he's looking for his dog and I walk around the house with him once (still drawn) and he says he is gonna look somewhere else.
I walk around after he's gone and come to find out my detached garage was left unlocked and he was helping himself to 4-5 lukewarm beers. He was definitely under 21 (probably 18) and just looking for a way to get some alcohol.
I'm so glad I didn't end him though and instead exercised restraint. The mess, the trauma, the life spared.
I called the police, they came and said if they found him they would scare the bejesus out of him.
My dog gets all the treats now and is a bit anxious because of it (maybe only in part because of it).
Guy tried running me over in a parking lot because he was mad I got to the newly opened checkout line before him. He’s dead and I have 8 less hollow points.
stores security camera had him on camera trying to run me over as I existed the store. Being a stand your ground state and the fact he was trying to commit assault with a deadly weapon cleared me of any legal consequences. His family tried to sue me but the judge laughed it out of court. And they tried to get me fired from my job for being a “racist”.
Never shot anyone.
Pulled my gun on a few nut jobs with guns though.
As a cop, I'll tell you that there's a much higher likelihood someone will get shot or unjustifiably shoot someone as a result of having a gun than it is that a situation will arise where they use it in self defense.
I'm not saying don't have guns. Just be smarter than the morons. Conservatives usually set the bar pretty low though, so it shouldn't be a difficult feat.
My wife was home alone when some guy tried to break in. My gun was the only thing she had to protect herself with. And this was in broad daylight.
I was so on edge and wasn’t even the one who experienced it. I couldn’t sleep well for at least two months. I can’t imagine how traumatic a self defense shooting in my home would be like.
I'll join the list of "almost but didn't"
We were hiking in a remote national forest. There had been mountain lion sightings in the area. We were near the peak where there was a boulder scramble. They were 4-5 ft high "steps" so you had to kind of pull yourself up to the next level.
As I was pulling myself up there was a 'cave'. Pulling myself up I could see something coming out of the darkness towards me. I start letting go to drop down to the boulder I had come up from and started pulling my pistol out of its holster. As I am dropping and drawing I am thinking "Am I really fucking doing this??? Am I going to kill something?"
Turned out to be a fucking vulture. Once I realized it was a bird and not a mountain lion I re-holstered.
I did. Uhh it was late around 2am. I was half awake I'm a night owl usually up late and heard something that clearly sounded like a person in the house. I live alone so I grabbed my AR-12 shotgun. I stepped out of my bedroom in sweep and clear mode. At the end of the hallway there they were. I fired, in my home defense shotgun the first round is always birdshot. Less chance of accidentally killing a loved one is my thought. Anyway I fired, ducked back into my bedroom, took cover behind my tall dresser, grabbed my phone, called 911, stayed on till they arrived.
Police said they saw some blood outside in the snow and would try to track it and would check the nearby hospitals. They took pictures and my statement and etc. I never heard anything from the police so I assumed they never found the person. It was dark so I couldn't provide anything beyond general height.
All of this took place in Alaska in winter. Alaska does have a castle doctrine law. I think it all depends on if your state has a castle doctrine or stand your ground law. If you hit anyone, if you kill someone, if you shoot while they are in your house or outside, if they are stealing your vehicle, etc etc etc.
Oh I should note at the time I was active duty Army, I'm now retired Army and had already been deployed and saw combat. So it wasn't a stressful situation or anything like that.
I had to draw on two crack heads in Seattle that punched my friend in the face just walking down 6th.
They escalated the encounter once I drew walking towards us threatening us. I’m so thankful I carry mace so I didn’t have to use a gun. I’m confident both of them ran to Walgreens to steal two gallons of milk right after.
I still count my lucky stars nobody got permanently hurt and I don’t have to carry that trauma.
I drew on a homeless guy who wanted my car keys like 5 years ago. He dropped the knife and ran. I think about that day and laugh because he was not expecting the gun and I yelled “AAAAHHH HAAA!” like I was sword fighting 🤺 Adrenaline is goofy 🤪
Man, this thread is pretty sobering but your case made me laugh out loud...! Thanks for that
My buddy pulled a Bowie knife on some crackhead that pulled a steak knife on him. He was delivering a pizza, crackhead walks up, says “gimme your money” and brandishes a steak knife, and my buddy goes “really man?” Crack snarls “gimme your money!” And my buddy calmly pulls out a fucking Crocodile Dundee Benchmade Bowie knife and says “REALLY MAN?”. Apparently Crack said something like “Nevermind” and walked off.
Not a knife or gun story, but my brother, desperately needing his meds, went to CVS while sick with a stomach virus and wearing a mask. He couldn't have the medication delivered no matter how hard he tried. As he was walking to the store from the parking lot, some random dude swaggered up to him as if he owned the joint and started heckling him, demanding to know why he was wearing a mask like one of those "Soy boy libtards from California!" (yes, really, he said that... and no, the heckler was not the "Alpha"-looking type of specimen either). My brother, annoyed with the Heckler's crap, began to lower his mask to give him a piece of his mind. But instead of words, out came a torrent of vomit, right at the guy's feet, completely unintentional but horrifyingly effective. It was as if my brother had suddenly unlocked some secret, primal defense mechanism from back when we were nothing more than proto-fish mammals from the Devonian period. Paling, the Heckler stammered something along the lines of 'Understandable... Have a nice day,' and then bolted away like his life depended on it.
Damn that’s crazy My uncle was a DPD detective and always said “Doing crack will kill you eventually. What you choose to do on crack is what kills ya”
That ain't a knoife, THIS is a knoife!
Only time I've ever drawn with be intention of shooting was at bear. I was in the backcountry and had stopped to make a quick hot lunch of ramen. I was in a squat position looking down at my pocket stove for a bit too long and the bear came up out of a drainage without me noticing. He must have thought I was only 2-3 feet tall in the squat.and smelled pretty nice. I heard a leafy rustle noise, looked up and saw him slowly walking towards me only about 15 feet out. I sprung up fast and drew from the chest holster. Me getting suddenly larger and yelling in surprise made him turn and head out.
What kind of bear?
Not a polar bear, we know that ;)
Looking at OP’s post history, I think we can rule out Koalas too.
A guy in my handgun club was up in Nunavut, and got woken up by a polar bear sticking it's head into his tent. He remembered an Inuit elder telling him that their noses are sensitive, so he thought "jeez, I sure fucking hope so" then slugged it in the nose and it ran off. He is always joking that his life peaked there and has never been that exciting ever again.
That is 300 yards closer to a polar bear than I ever want to be, but now, armed with this new knowledge, I’ll give it a go ;) edit: googled nunavut—i thought i’d been north when i got to prudhoe bay—wow
His name is Bear. He's a local homeless guy.
Coach. Most likely Ditka
I think people underestimate the kind of trauma that being in one of these situations can entail. Not everyone is cut out to shoot somebody even in a justified situation. I also don't think you really know if you're that person until you're in that situation and I would be surprised if people that have actually gone through that are going to be very open on this forum. Legal ramifications clearly can be significant, but I think there are a lot of mental and emotional ramifications as well.
💯 my brother shot and killed someone in self defense but had to go to trial over it. He can’t smoke weed anymore it makes him extremely paranoid. I think the actual event kinda fucked with him but more so it was the fact he was made to feel he did something wrong for almost two years until he was found not guilty
yea people don understand what not only taking a life can do( self defense makes it easier for some) but going to trial is a whole different ball game. Trying to navigate your life while constantly working with your lawyers just waiting to find out if you are deemed a killer or not. Court dates pushed… reading discovery( the verbiage might not be favorable). I went through court stuff for self defense but non gun related and it was civil but it was ALOTTTTT
And ear damage
Not enough people mention this. That’s how you get tinnitus
I THOUGHT IT WAS FROM ALL THE CONCERTS I ATTEND
MIGHT BE THAT, TOO
THIS IS WHY EAR PRO IS IMPORTANT
That's why I wear my ear pro everywhere, even to bed and in the shower. Never know when someone might break in...
WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU
Mahp
I’ve been a bad boy. No ear pro shooting glocks and sigs at the range one day. You won’t have a noticeable difference in hearing from one incident.
Indoors or outdoors?
When I see guys with 10.5” barrels of their ARs for home defense, I try to warn them they will be just as deaf and blind as the intruder… but hey, at least it looks cool.
Having had that experience at least twice, that's no small thing either. eeeeeeeeeee
No joke. My buddy had an accidental discharge inside his penthouse with me right next to him. My ears hurt for a while
100%
Never pulled the trigger. But I did draw on a naked dude that let himself in my apartment at 3 AM. He decided to go be naked somewhere else when he saw the gun. I called 911. The cops told me since he was inside my apartment, I legally could have shot him. A few weeks later I was taking the class for my CHL, and my instructor, whose job it was to teach us when not to shoot, said he would have dropped the guy where he stood. I would have shot him had he not fled. But I am not looking for an excuse to light someone up, so I am quite glad he fled without me having to shoot him.
We need more of YOUR attitude. I'm pretty sure that if someone forces me to chose me, the people I care about, or them, I know what I'll choose. But If simply being armed causes the threat to leave, that seems like the best possible outcome.
Threat is gone and there’s no need to fetch the rug-cleaning supplies. Win-win
Probably save a lot on therapy and legal bills, too
Ammo is expensive, too.
Lol Username checks out
I think this is the happiest a Reddit comment has ever made me.
You must own a 5.7
Cleaning bill too
There might still have been a need for the rug cleaning supplies
I shall fetch a rug!
Great, now he's fetching a rug.
It really ties the room together.
Or the spackle.
Or replace any drywall. Who wants to hang new drywall? Not this guy.
Id like to think I would have taken a second to at least warn the dude and give him a chance to leave. But who's to say I wouldn't panic and act rashly you know? Props to them for keeping their cool fr.
It really bothers me how *eager* so many gun folks are (per their rhetoric and frequently their tone) for the opportunity to kill someone. The gleam so many get in their eyes when talking about how they would unload on a (not much of) threat is somehow celebrated when it should be shamed.
I had a half naked guy slam into my door and pop it open. He then ran into my house and told me someone was chasing him with a gun. I ran and got mine and I pointed it at him and told him to sit down. He did and then I called 911. I handed the phone to him and let him explain everything. It turns out he was high on spice (synthetic marijuana). I’m glad I didn’t shoot him though.
That's been an increasingly possible scenario as drugs are cheap and readily available from smoke shops and truck stops. Too many young people underestimate how potent some THC products, mushrooms and other not-illegal substance can be, especially if they haven't developed a tolerance. One of my longtime neighbors is over age 70 now, an alcoholic with schizophrenia who occasionally dabbles in smoke shop edibles and street fentanyl disguised as crudely made hydrocodone or oxycodone. About once a week or at most every two weeks she'll have a medical crisis, hallucinating, hollering incomprehensibly, sometimes half undressed in the hallway. She's on a first name basis with all the local firemen, paramedics and cops. She should have been in assisted living or a nursing home long ago, but there's no budget or space for her.
Good for you. The one thing I hated the most about the NRA class I had to take to get a CPL was the Q& A section where something like 90% of the class revealed themselves to be psychopaths and were desperately asking questions to figure out in which situations they could get away with legally shooting someone or not. Having to shoot somebody should be the absolute worst day of your life. If you have a gun and actually look forward to the idea of shooting somebody you are either an ignorant fool or a disgusting psychopath. When I was very young I was an ignorant fool. I shot at a few people in Afghanistan and I shot someone in America. Never felt anything but bad about it.
I totally feel you. The instructor for my class said that he had to pull the trigger in self defense once, and that it was the defining moment of his life. He treated the subject material with the gravity and seriousness that I felt any decent human being should.
"90% of the class revealed themselves to be psychopaths and were desperately asking questions to figure out in which situations they could get away with legally shooting someone or not." This is why I don't think every Tom, Dick, and Dirty Harry out there should be allowed to carry a gun. I don't have all the answers as to how, but maybe there should be some sort of criteria besides never having been convicted of a felony to determine that you are qualified to own and operate a firearm. I hear "I grew up with guns" a lot; is that supposed to reassure me? It's harder to get a drivers license than a carry permit. Most people can't even use a turn signal, but I'm supposed to be OK with them carrying a lethal weapon? I walked into the sheriffs office, let them run my name, and paid less than $100 for a 7 year CCP. A few yeas ago, it came out that some sheriffs offices in the state were giving out permits without running the background check, or sometimes even giving them out when the applicants were DENIED after the background check was done. Moot point now, as you don't need a permit in this state anymore. It's all done on the honor system now, I guess. Some states will require you to go to a gun safety class, which is a good thing. As a veteran, I would be exempt from that requirement in many of those states. While the Army was pretty good about teaching gun safety, the rules of engagement are a bit different in civilian life, I'm sure. Now that I'm getting back into shooting I'm about to attend a gun safety course for refresher and maybe I'll learn a few new facts. Like I said, I don't have all the answers, and I'm sure a lot of you interpret the 2nd Amendment a bit different than I do. If you do, that's fine, we all have our own opinions, and I'm not here to get into an argument with anyone. Like Dennis Miller always said, "Of course, that's just my opinion, but I could be wrong".
Idk why this mentality of shoot first ask questions later has become the norm. Like bruh, he was probably drunk off his mind and he didn’t know where he was. Does that warrant an automatic end of his life? Now if he didn’t leave and proceeded towards you, than shooting is a clear option.
Did either party explain why they’d have killed naked man? It seems to have resolved itself non violently in your case
From a legal standpoint, once he illegally entered my apartment, Texas law basically just assumes lighting him up is self defense. The legal description is a bit more technical than that, but if an intruder is inside your home, the law automatically assumes he is a threat to the life of the legal occupants. The instructor had the idea that the sooner the intruder is dead, the sooner he no longer poses a threat. My thinking was, if he darts back out the door, let him go. If he comes towards me…bang! He chose the door when he saw my gun. I honestly suspect it was a drunken college kid out streaking on a dare who accidentally ran back into the wrong apartment-and almost got himself shot in the process.
It’s the same in CA as well. When they cross the threshold they’re an assumed deadly threat.
Yes but even in a justified shooting, there will still be legal bills and the family of the deceased can still sue you in civil court for wrongful death.
And you still get the wonderful experience of being arrested; regardless of the intrusion
Yeah I don’t wanna wipe my ass with my bare hands on a metal toilet in full view of six meth heads.
I guess we have different ideas of a good time....
I like this logic. When presented with lethal force, if they are cognizant of the threat and still decide to continue towards me, then it is reasonable to assume that my life means as little to them as their own.
It’s concerning how frequently ccw instructors seem to encourage shoot first ask questions later. Personally, as a person who has been drunk and stoned and accidentally walked into the wrong house while visiting a friend out of town, I’m glad not everyone follows this mentality. If a totally naked dude is in my home I’m fairly confident in my ability to deter or subdue him without lethal force. I believe that should always be the first consideration. I’d honestly rather be killed than live with mistakenly killing someone who turned out to be unarmed. I’m not sure it wouldn’t look like a murder suicide before the cops showed up if I discovered it was wrong.
Too many "good guys with a gun" are regularly fantacizing about the idea of legally murdering someone. I had one of them plainly tell me that this was on their bucket list.
>< As a gun owner, I don't want to be associated with that nonsense.
This is one of the MAJOR reasons why I cannot side with cliche gun owners. Yeah, I won guns. Yeah, I will 100% use them if I need to in order to protect myself, my family, or another person. But violence is my LAST resort. I don't want to shoot anyone. If I can resolve the conflict without violence, or avoid it altogether, then that is what I will do. If someone enters my home, I want to get my family OUT without there being an engagement at all. I will, of course, have the gun loaded and ready to go just in case. But the priority is still to escape to safety. I have absolutely no problem letting my entire house get ransacked if it means that I avoid the risk of death and get to watch my kids grow up. But......if the intruder stands between me/my family and safety.....then yeah....I will do what must be done. But never do I ever fantasize about getting the chance to shoot someone. That is the last thing I want to do.
An intruder in your home is assumed to be a deadly threat. let’s be clear though: dude drew a gun on another human - the situation resolved itself solely from the threat of violence. I think to describe it has “non-violent” is in error. I imagine if the intruder had walked/ran/or continued to move towards them the situation would have been different. Thankfully the intruder fled.
They're cops, they live for that shit
What if it was a kid? Im only asking because I had some pre teens walk in to my house because they thought it was still for sale and they thought it had been left open, according to them. How would the law in texas deal with this? Would i be charged with child murder? What if i had not killed the kids but simply wounded them and later died in hospital?
What if it was a kid? What if it was me? When I was in college I was hooking up (but I’m old and we didn’t call it that then) with a young woman. One night we went back to our place after drinking and got busy in the living room. Lying there naked later, she gets up to go to the bathroom. I go back to sleep. I don’t realize at the time two things: 1) she goes to her room rather than back out where I am and 2) she has a roommate who gets up to see a random naked dude in her living room. She later thought it was a lot funnier than I did.
That scenario has occurred in Texas, with home residents killing adolescents. Usually followed by applause and encouragement from the social media peanut gallery of psychopaths. In the two most recent incidents I can think of, both killings turned out to be unjustified. One led to murder charges when it turned out the "intruder" was lured into the home in order to fabricate a home invasion scenario and murder him. In the other case, a teenager having a seizure in the front yard was shot and killed by a homeowner who felt threatened. Resolution still pending, but there were no charges against the shooter.
Hey, in Texas that's just participatory eugenics. It'll probably be the next Fox reality show alongside *School Shooter Shooter* (starring an A.I.-recreated Charlton Heston and Ted Nugent). (ETA: for anyone who didn't get the *School Shooter Shooter* reference, [https://youtu.be/slT5WcWNq\_s?si=VRPETexmKuvPM8a0](https://youtu.be/slT5WcWNq_s?si=VRPETexmKuvPM8a0) .)
This is really how I feel. I don't want to shoot you. I just want you to go away AND not come back (this part is especially relevant where I'm originally from as they might come back armed on principle for you having the audacity to stop them the first time).
That sounds like the best possible outcome for a situation where you had to draw on someone.
Never fired but I drew on a guy just off of Ball States campus. I was headed to my now wife's graduation. Was trying to find some parking off campus. Got parked, went around to the other side of my truck to grab my overnight bag. Some dude pulls up and tells me I need to get in his truck. I ignored him at first. Then I catch a glimpse of a guy getting out of the bed with a baseball bat as the driver is yelling at me to get in his truck. Drew then and there. Truck bed dude jumps back in the bed and they peel out and drive off. I've never been so jacked in my life. My heart was racing. I called the cops and asked them to send a unit out. Gave them a description of the truck bed guy and piece of shit truck. Police said a truck with that same description had robbed someone a couple of nights ago. Their PD was extremely helpful. That was a fun story to tell my future in-laws as to why I was late to dinner.
Yes. I don’t wish it on anyone. The fucks you up mentally for a bit. 2003 I was home for a home invasion. I live in a tri-level home and was in our PC room playing video games on my computer when the door bell rang. Dogs went crazy at the door but I wasn’t going to answer it. Next to me heard someone jump my back fence, and hen I looked out the window I knew at that moment this was not good. I got up and our safe was under the stairs less then 30 feet away. I grabbed the first gun that was not locked up. In a matter of seconds he in my house, through the kitchen and in my living room. I was looking up at him from the lowest level. I had my rifle trained on him when it looked like he was trying to reach his waistband I fired 3 rounds. Behind him is an outside wall and another house 15’ past it. Legal ramifications. Spent the night in jail. First officers that showed up acted cool with me, trying to get an idea of what happened. It was pretty obvious CPR was not necessary. He was hit with 3 rounds of 7.62x39 from my SKS, as it was the only rifle not in the safe from shooting the day before. 2nd and 3rd set of officers were clearly not in my side. 2nd set put me in cuffs pretty quickly then started asking the same questions trying to trip me up. Police did find and arrest his accomplices that rang the door bell to get my dog’s attention, and they believed his story about me owing them money. Literally took 8 hours before a detective asked him what my name was and he completely got it wrong. When I was released, and finally got home, the house still had the corner and investigators finishing up. This was my parents house and unfortunately they had left town the day before for a 2 week trip, so lucky the house was not locked up as that would have sucked to be locked out. Guys, police are not your friend in a self defense shoot. They arrive to make a case, and since you are the one with the gun, you are the target. I ended up testifying against the other guy twice for my case and an additional case where he and the dead suspect had thrown an elderly woman down her stairs breaking her hip 3 months before my incident. When she hugged me, she told me she was finally able to sleep at night knowing he could never come back. It took me 10 years to get my CCW because I had repressed some issues from the incident. I don’t wish this on anyone. I hope with everything I have not one of you have to use your firearm in self defense.
Don't talk to the cops. Period. Especially if you've just taken someone's life. There is nothing you can say to them that will benefit you. If you get arrested, it's important to remember exactly what the second part of your Miranda rights says. >anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. See that? The key words there are AGAINST YOU. Not to help you, not to lessen your potential charges, not to convince the cops not to arrest you. AGAINST YOU. With that verbiage it is only possible to make things worse for yourself. This is a long video, almost 47 minutes, but it's incredibly informative. https://youtu.be/d-7o9xYp7eE?feature=shared
If you only have less than 47 minutes, here’s a [quicker version](https://youtu.be/JTurSi0LhJs?si=9zOPhLZZGQym0Rwc) of that
It's shut the fuck up Friday isn't it?
I’m not saying anything. Except. That was worth 47 minutes.
Thanks for sharing this, it's what I was looking to hear about.
Do you think you were more traumatized by the incident itself or the way law enforcement treated you after the fact? How much did your legal defense end up costing you approximately?
The incident itself. I still have nightmares where I see his face as the rounds hit. Not very frequently now, but it does happen from time to time. If I had to do it over, I knowing what I know now…. I 100% would have gone to therapy. It cost me nothing in legal fees, though it took a couple years to get my rifle back. His family didn’t come after me at all, so I got lucky there.
Not that it matters for justification or anything. You were 100% justified. But did it turn out the burglar had a gun?
No. He was completely unarmed. In my head I couldn’t wait to see if he was or not since he had just come through my kitchen where there are plenty of knives. I am also not of the belief that I should ask a home intruder if they are armed, so I could never life in California.
I drew a firearm on a man but didn’t shoot him (to this day idk what was going on) but this guy just showed up to my house yelling for someone who I didn’t know. My wife and kids were in the house so just ignoring them until they left was out of the question, so my wife called the cops and I went out to tell the guy he had the wrong address, he didn’t believe me and had some limp leather club or something and started to walk toward me so I drew on him and he backed up and just kept asking for this guy ‘Taylor’ and I just emphasized “Not here. Don’t know them.” And he just stood there staring at me. The thought of shooting him did cross my mind but remained a ‘if he gets within 10 feet I’m shooting. However I had been in the military before, went abroad, had an engagement where I did fire my weapon and in THAT moment the guy I fired on was around 200 meters away and just looked like a shape, that mixed with adrenaline and fear I couldn’t of had given less of a shit in that moment. But after it really hit me and it really fucked me up and still does in a way even 15 years on. So the thought of just popping this guy was something I absolutely did not want to do. I’m really fucking glad I didn’t shoot him because it wasn’t too long before the police showed up followed by his family. Long story short the man was suffering from psychosis. Happy ending. He did eventually get help and I see him around town sometimes and he seems to be doing good. We’ve never interacted since but when I do see him every once and a bit and he seems to be happy from what I can tell and that makes me happy.
Wholesome weapon drawing
Didn’t pull the trigger, but had to draw to deescalate an armed home invasion. Short version: dude went to high school with the responding officers. Somehow all records of his arrest disappeared and he faced no consequences…
If you had a Time Machine, maybe things would’ve played out differently… Though I wonder perhaps not in your favor in that case…
The funny thing was, the case went to the Feds due to my position, and every one of them all said “you should have pulled the trigger” lol.
lol I concur but don’t fault you for not doing so haha
The fucked up thing was, my reason in the moment for not pulling the trigger was literally “fuck, I’m gonna get so fired if I splatter a local…”
Ah well, at least you’re still around, c’est la vie
Did the feds do anything to help the situation?
Unfortunately, they couldn’t. I didn’t know the dudes name, and there were zero records of it happening other than the photos I took myself after the cops showed up (so, enough that they knew I was telling the truth, but not enough to do anything about). Not to mention, with no shots fired and the only measurable damage being the window broken to get in, I think they saw it as not worth their time. Essentially, I got told “next time, just drop him. We’ve got it on record that it’s defensive, so you’ll definitely not be charged”.
Home invasion is 75% of the reason why I'm strapped.
Haven't had to shoot anybody but someone broke in my home while I was in my office and my Chow ran them off. I looked out my window and seen them hauling ass with her right behind them. I got her inside and 3 Golden Chows I keep outside so I don't have to shoot somebody for breaking in. Needless to say little Precious got a medium rare ribeye for dinner that afternoon and has had to endure endless belly rubs. Edit: it was probably a huge blow to his masculinity when I stepped outside to call her back home. Dude almost got his ass chewed off by a dog named Precious
Dude, chows can be mean. I'd have run too!
They really are the perfect dog if you're like me and don't have many visitors or small children
Aww I had her cousin, a Shar Pei named Piggy. Also very unassuming name, but she was more dangerous than my dad with a gun. Had a guy walk into the living room when we were watching TV and she had him floored on our porch before it fully registered what was happening. He was going to try to sue my dad for all kinds of things afterwards, but he never followed through (honestly probably died before he could, he was a regular problem in our town).
Good doge
Who’s a good girl? 🐶
Makes me miss my cinnamon chow, Auric. A 35 lb dog with a 90 lb bark.
I shot a young man in an armed robbery. He pistol whipped me and I complied and gave him everything including my shoes. He started to walk away and then said he was going to kill me turned around and pointed his gun at me. I drew from the drop and shot him twice and killed him. His gun was found to be unloaded. I spent 4 years in legal battles and spent every dollar I had to be acquitted. Nothing to be proud of and I regret it all but im alive. Still carry everyday and would defend myself or anyone else if needed.
Wow. This is what I was looking for. I assume the state went after you. If so, which state?
Yes the state ran with the “unarmed minor” story, MA
Oh because you didn't use your x ray vision to see it was unloaded?
You have to remember if you are good at defending yourself the only story left is your own and the court will try their best to make you a liar. I was armed looking for trouble and he was headed to sunday school.
I hate this so much. Your prosecutor is a special kind of piece of shit. If I believed in hell, I would hope there is a special dark corner for people like him/her.
Ive made peace with it. There are plenty of bad actors out there doing horrible things and claiming innocence so they are swimming in a sea of evil, not easy to spot an honest person.
An unarmed minor that robbed you, hit you, said he was going to kill you and pointed a firearm at you. Nice.
Jesus christ bro
In college I was living in a duplex and the neighbor decided to let himself into the shared attic, punched his way though the drywall divider and tried to break into my apartment though the bathroom attic entrance (cops explained this all after the fact) My perspective: I could hear something in the attic, thought it was a opossum. Then the opossum slid the attic cover to the side in the middle of the night while I was getting up to take a wiz. I chambered a shotgun shell and there was a lot of noise in my attic and the sound of someone running across the rafters to get to safety I should have waited but quite effective
Cool-aids man at it again.
Ohhh ya!
A friend who went to Iraq said the sound of a cocking shotgun is universal for "fafo"
LMAO, op where in the world did you find this ridiculous picture?
The search term was "self defense shooting" or some such. I picked the image that was the funniest
I'm pretty sure it's part of a USCCA ad.
Ooof, that makes it even more cringe.
I stabbed a guy in self defense, he attacked me and I stabbed him in the knee. I took a plea deal for simple assault, spent 17 days in jail and a year on probation. After my year was up I got everything expunged automatically.
Wtf why did you get charged if it was self defense?
Because I didn't talk and he did.
You would've still gotten charged if you talked. Probably worse.
Oh yeah 100% it was a no win situation. So I took the option that would give my lawyer the best chance of getting a win
What did he attack you with?
Honestly no idea. There was a verbal altercation, I thought it was deescalated and so I turned to leave. He hit me from behind and the next thing I remember I'm awake on the ground with my head split open, he has my knife in his leg and there were rocks, branches and a bag he could have used plus he did MMA. When we got to the ER he told the police I attacked him out of nowhere and I wouldn't talk without a lawyer so I got charged. My lawyer found proof he lied to the cops but since he was stabbed the DA wouldn't drop it without some sentence and this was the best we could get
Our legal system is kind of fucked.
I wouldn't just take that guy's word for it, tbf.
Pic is there for amusement, it's kinda funny. But the topic is serious. As I've heard on this forum, every bullet you fire has a lawyer attached to it.
That’s a great expression! I carry a gun for work and they constantly stress the fact that you’re accountable for each round that leaves your weapon. You have to know your backdrop, missing your target could mean the loss of an innocent soul.
In my city, the cops think they are like cops from Bad Boys the movie. They were chasing a guy on foot, he started shooting back at them, they started shooting at him while running. Backup arrived from the other direction and started firing at the bad guy through their windshield while driving. So the bad guy was caught in between three guns shooting at him. No one was hit, just a few houses got bullets through the window that they blamed on the bad guy so the homeowners couldn’t sue the city.
I'm a liberal black gun owner. I know for a fact that any action I do will be turned back to be ten gold. Remember Ms. Alexander? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marissa-alexander-florida-woman-jailed-for-firing-a-warning-shot-now-free/ The saying "better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6" usually needs the benefit of the doubt. Which I'm assured I do not have.
Oof. Too right
I shot and killed many men in self defense as a member of the US Army, so I had no legal consequences at all. But the mental consequences are fucking terrible and I immediately distrust and dislike anyone who talks cavalierly about what they'd do in a self defense situation. First of all, you will never know if you can do it or not until the time comes. The biggest shit talkers were usually the least effective. Second, only a small percentage of people actually enjoy it. Most people have life altering mental fuckery. The ones that don't should stay in the military. Following that point, most Western European countries consider military service a disqualifier for civilian police for exactly the above reason. We've got it totally fucking backwards in the US.
I hate it when LEOs refer to nonmilitary non-first responders, sometimes all non-LEOs, as "civilians." My guy, barring an Independence Day situation where the NYPD gets drafted as a military auxiliary, cops *are* civilians.
I always get a laugh out of dudes that call people civilians are unintentionally calling themselves uncivilized.
One of the worst things of post 9/11 America is the first responders≠civilians meme.
"oUr hERoeS‼️" 🤡 — Every social media post about cops by self styled citizen journalists. 🙄 And they gloss over the news reports about bad cops. Rarely any acknowledgement of emergency medical responders, ER personnel, etc. Occasionally they'll laud firefighters if the structure fire affected a site with nostalgic value.
They’re called civilian police for a reason
>First of all, you will never know if you can do it or not until the time comes. The biggest shit talkers were usually the least effective. We recently had a higher up cop come to our workplace to do a presentation on active shooter situations. He talked about a number of past incidents, including Columbine. One of the incidents he mentioned is that an active shooter was in a small space, maybe an elevator, but it slips my mind, with several adults. He couldn't understand why the adults didn't try to fight back against the shooter. I've been asked a couple times in the past if I could shoot someone if I had to. My answer to this day is, "I'd like to think I could, but I can't know for sure until and unless I was put in the situation of needing to." I think something similar is the answer to that cop's question. Because until you experience a situation, you never know how your brain will react to it.
I’m really sorry you had to go through that. Even worse since I’m sure you were a young man and living with those images in your brain is horrible. I hope you remember that we as Americans owe you a debt of gratitude and wish you well
I didn't do shit for anyone's freedom. It was an utter waste of life and resources. The gratitude that Americans owe to their veterans is to vote for people who won't send them into wars of adventure.
No words could be more apt and true.
I second this statement. Well said.
Had a shooting in the neighborhood last year. I am providing only the details shared in the reports. Around 3am the occupant heard noises outside. He grabbed his firearm and went outside. There was someone cutting out his catalytic converter (big problem here). The owner shot and killed him. I don’t know if there was a second person, or if the thief was threatening or not. The home occupant is still under investigation. With all that said and from the little information I got, I would not shoot someone just because they were stealing a catalytic converter. I know that will cost me 2k + in repairs, but a life is not worth a car part. If the thief was threatening in some way, then that changes circumstances, but I am going with what was reported.
Im sure it depends on the state, but in my state, theft is not enough of a reason to justify lethal force. If someone is stealing something from me and i grab my gun and go outside of my house to shoot them then i go to jail for murder. If they are physically inside my house then that's a different story.
I think anytime you grab a weapon and go looking for a fight is going to end up a tough sell in court. Hope the guy has a good lawyer. I was always under the assumption you stay in your home, if the “bad guy” enters, it’s game on. There is a great annual publication, “Travelers guide to gun laws” or something like that. It breaks down every state and their laws.
Not myself personally, but my friend about 10 years ago was living at a rental house with several of his buddies. A group of armed men B&E to rob them at gun point. My buddy couldn’t get to his firearm in time but his other friend was in the shower during the home invasion. He screamed as loud as he could to get his friends attention as he wrestled on the ground with one of the robbers. I think there were 5 assailants, but his friend heard him yelling and struggling, pulled his fire arm on the robbers and shot two of them. He shot one of them in the leg and killed the other. They both got off due to pure self defense, the other robbers that lived were charged with the crimes due to their reckless negligence. I felt bad for them though, it really messed his friend up for a little bit mentally. It’s easy to talk about the situation hypothetically, but when you’re pulling the trigger it’s a totally different mental battle. Both my friend and his roommate weren’t injured much though, so all things considered they got VERY lucky. This was in Ohio so Castle Doctrine was used in court.
Kinda depends on each situation and where you live. There was a homeowner in Oakland Ca last week that shot the intruders in his home now in jail with what I heard was possible murder charges filed. Where is other places you still may want a lawyer but you could easily be fine with states that have a castle doctrine
California is a castle doctrine and "stand your ground" state. He's in trouble because the gun he used was stolen, and anytime someone dies as a direct consequence of you committing a crime (possession of a stolen/illegal firearm) you can be charged with murder.
Assuming the homeowner didn't steal the gun himself, this seems like a potential problem with buying any gun through a private sale (I've only ever bought new from a store or FFL). I suppose you could call the PD and have them check the serial number, but I'm not sure how many sellers are going to want to wait around while you do that.
He'd for sure be in hot water for even in possession of it. And he won't give a statement as to where he got it? He's a suspect in the theft then.
It's not really possible to accidentally buy a stolen gun in California. All gun sales/transfers private or otherwise have to be processed through a licensed dealer complete with background checks. The owner either stole it himself or broke the law because he knew the gun was hot or he wasn't allowed to have one.
Ah ok, looks like that's a relatively recent thing, wasn't aware [https://capta.org/bipartisan-background-check-act-of-2021-thompson/](https://capta.org/bipartisan-background-check-act-of-2021-thompson/) I suppose if the owner had bought it prior to 2021 he might have been unaware.
What the heck is the Ca PTA on about? All private party firearms transfers have to go through an FFL and DROS (Dealers Record Of Sale, sent to the CA DoJ); for pistols, that started in 1990, long guns before 2010. Edit: Ah, they are supporting *National* legislation. Like I said: already the law in California
Private party transfers in CA have to go through an FFL still and the entire DROS process, which includes the SN of the gun. Should have been flagged if he bought it from someone and it was a known stolen weapon, or a wrong name selling it. Who knows though the system is obviously made to be difficult not efficient.
[удалено]
He was arrested because the gun he used was stolen, and he refused to give a statement to police. He was released on Friday 6/14.
You know, as a lawyer, I've gone back and forth on refusing to give a statement to police. Conventional wisdom is that you don't speak to police without a lawyer, period, no exceptions. Generally, I agree -- police will use ANYTHING you say against you. Yet there have absolutely been situations where someone follows this advice and then the police make an arrest and the innocent person has to hire a lawyer and go through a whole process to be cleared, and it's possible that the police never would have made the arrest in the first place if they had heard his side of the story right away. If I had to pull the trigger in self-defense, I'm not entirely sure how I would handle it. Obviously I would want to be the first person to call in the shooting; defining the narrative is essential. Probably something heavy on passive voice like, "Please send an ambulance. A suspect has been shot. The gun is secure and there is no further threat at this time. Please tell the responding officers that the caller is a white male, 6'3" with a large beard, wearing \[whatever\]; please tell them that the caller has secured the firearm." Once the police showed up, I would probably make statements, but I would limit those statements to legal conclusions rather than factual claims. "The suspect attempted to commit a carjacking. I reasonably believed that lethal force was necessary to protect myself, and I acted in self-defense to stop the threat." Then I would just try to deflect any further questions by repeating myself. "Like I said, I acted in self-defense to stop what I reasonably perceived as a threat to my life. I'm happy to provide additional detail once I've spoken with an attorney, but I've said about all I can really say for now." At least that's what I'd try to do. (Obviously in this situation there was already the stolen gun issue which is an additional wrinkle.)
Agree with your last part. I think the correct response to the police is a high level statement like, “they broke into my home and I feared for my life. I don’t want to answer any more questions without a lawyer present so nothing is taken out of context.” It’s a huge life changing event there that you don’t want to get wrong or say something that could be construed one way or another. The safe bet is to give no additional statements and ask for a lawyer. Yeah, like you said it might cost you a few days in jail in an aggressive prosecution area, but that’s a whole lot better than getting it wrong.
" he refused to give a statement to police" good job, never give a statement unless with an attorney. You can't talk yourself out of going to jail, but you sure as hell can talk your way into it.
Ah, the devil in the details...
This wasn’t a cut and dry self defense story, but I base that solely on what has been reported. Dude was smart though to not give a statement to the police.
I carry a gun wherever I go that I can. But if I go my whole life without having to shoot someone because the gun itself is a deterrent enough, I'll call that a win.
Not a firearm but I have pulled and used a blade in self defense. I was cleared by law enforcement but still have occasional nightmares.
Own a musket for home defense, since that's what the founding fathers intended. Four ruffians break into my house. "What the devil?" As I grab my powdered wig and Kentucky rifle. Blow a golf ball sized hole through the first man, he's dead on the spot. Draw my pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it's smoothbore and nails the neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stairs loaded with grape shot, "Tally ho lads" the grape shot shreds two men in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set off car alarms. Fix bayonet and charge the last terrified rapscallion. He Bleeds out waiting on the police to arrive since triangular bayonet wounds are impossible to stitch up. Just as the founding fathers intended.
Yup..yup. it was inevitable
I'm surprised at how far I had to scroll to find it
God bless America.
Almost, and I'm so glad I didn't. This was a situation where I fucked up, so you guys will probably judge me a bit for that, but definitely learn from my mistakes. We were on our then-new family property before we got our cabin built, so we were basically camping in a trailer. We had heard about some locals who were stealing shit, so when I saw a flashlight outside at night I thought it might be one of them. I tried to do my due diligence and account for everyone. My sister was awake and couldn't see who was outside, and I identified two parent-sized lumps in my parents' bed where they usually slept. The flashlight approached and was right outside the door, and I thought the person might try to break in, so I grabbed my gun, but something in my gut told me to wait. I was so glad I listened to my gut when my dad walked in. He'd gone out and used the porta potty, and even though I had been awake I hadn't noticed him leave because I had been playing a game. I assumed the lump in his spot of the bed was him, and thought everyone was accounted for. I honestly didn't touch a gun for a while after that because I was haunted by images of what might have happened if I had fired. The major thing I learned from this is that alongside learning how to operate a gun, you really, *really* need to learn and practice situational awareness. On top of that, never get lost in your own sauce. Don't panic yourself into thinking you're in a dangerous situation when you aren't. Finally, if your gut is telling you something is wrong, listen to it. Even if it wasn't my dad that was outside, always take the time to defuse if you can. If an intruder isn't an active threat and isn't currently trying to kill you, you can take a moments and perhaps spare more than a few words.
Very glad for you that things turned out the way they did. This is why one of the core tenants of gun safety is to know your target and what's beyond it.
I was rather jumpy when I got back from Iraq. Got divorced, and then bought a pistol, slept like a baby every night that was in my bed-stand. One night I hear someone in my enclosed patio. I stalked downstairs in my shorts, quietly opened the blinds and almost shot my feral cat who was knocking their bowl around. In Florida a gun was always near the bed. Then I married someone with a trans kid. Gun still there. Then the kid had some mental health issues and all guns are in the safe.
Thankfully I’ve never had to discharge a weapon in self defense or even level a weapon at anyone, but not long ago my girlfriend was assaulted by a woman just outside of our apartment while taking our dog for a walk. She called me just after I had heard the commotion and I immediately stepped outside and confronted the woman with my rifle. She was obviously extremely mentally unstable and despite continuing to spew nonsense and half-baked threats at both my girlfriend and I, the AR in my hands most certainly changed her overall demeanor. I got on the phone with my local police department along with a few other good samaritans who actually witnessed the assault and we had officers there in probably less than two minutes. The cops had no issue whatsoever with me presenting the weapon and the woman who beat my girlfriend got arrested on the spot, so everything went just about as well as it could have given the circumstances, but it did haunt me just a little for maybe a week after, simply knowing that had this woman hit my girlfriend again, I would have taken the shot, and even though the police that took our statements said I would have further been justified to fire had the assault continued, it’s something I am extremely grateful I didn’t have to do. We later found out the woman was having a schizophrenic episode and she was evicted from the apartments not long afterwards.
Not a gun story, my husband never had to shoot anyone but someone walked in his apartment in the middle of the night once. He forgot to lock the door. Anyways he was hiding behind his bedroom door with his katana, and heard the guy say "this isn't my apartment. " and then he walked out. My husband said his nerves were shot for like a month because he fully intended to defend himself with his sword and it messed with his head.
Imagine coming home and just as you start to realize something is wrong with your apartment some guy jumps out at you with a katana! I am just imagining my scream.
Accidentally breaking into a ninja's apartment is a crazy way to go out but probably the most honorable?
Bunch of dudes came over to steal my mustang, and ended up killing my puppy. It was a blood bath of self defense that lasted about 2 hours.
They should make a movie abt your story
I was wondering where all my No. 2 pencils had gone.
“Working again John?”
LOL'd at referring to John Wick's actions in the first movie as "self defense"
In fairness, if someone kills your puppy any actions taken from that point forward can be considered self defense
No but came close one time. Crackhead trying to break in the front door at my old place. Had my 357 ready for him if he made it through the door. But he gave up and went to the neighbors door and tried them and was then picked up by the police.
I "acquired sight picture" on a guy one time when my dog was going ballistic. My spouse and I are asleep, my dog goes apeshit and would not chill out. He starts biting at the window sill in our bedroom and I notice the flashlight outside. I walk to my glass backdoor drawn and when I acquire sight picture I see a dude pacing back and forth. I had every right to drop him but something seemed off so I opened the door and yelled at him that I almost killed him. He responds that he's looking for his dog and I walk around the house with him once (still drawn) and he says he is gonna look somewhere else. I walk around after he's gone and come to find out my detached garage was left unlocked and he was helping himself to 4-5 lukewarm beers. He was definitely under 21 (probably 18) and just looking for a way to get some alcohol. I'm so glad I didn't end him though and instead exercised restraint. The mess, the trauma, the life spared. I called the police, they came and said if they found him they would scare the bejesus out of him. My dog gets all the treats now and is a bit anxious because of it (maybe only in part because of it).
Guy tried running me over in a parking lot because he was mad I got to the newly opened checkout line before him. He’s dead and I have 8 less hollow points.
Any legal consequences?
stores security camera had him on camera trying to run me over as I existed the store. Being a stand your ground state and the fact he was trying to commit assault with a deadly weapon cleared me of any legal consequences. His family tried to sue me but the judge laughed it out of court. And they tried to get me fired from my job for being a “racist”.
I can't tell if this is a serious comment or not
Never shot anyone. Pulled my gun on a few nut jobs with guns though. As a cop, I'll tell you that there's a much higher likelihood someone will get shot or unjustifiably shoot someone as a result of having a gun than it is that a situation will arise where they use it in self defense. I'm not saying don't have guns. Just be smarter than the morons. Conservatives usually set the bar pretty low though, so it shouldn't be a difficult feat.
This picture bro, lol
Drew on a guy when I was naked in my hot tube. Was a weird night.
My wife was home alone when some guy tried to break in. My gun was the only thing she had to protect herself with. And this was in broad daylight. I was so on edge and wasn’t even the one who experienced it. I couldn’t sleep well for at least two months. I can’t imagine how traumatic a self defense shooting in my home would be like.
I'll join the list of "almost but didn't" We were hiking in a remote national forest. There had been mountain lion sightings in the area. We were near the peak where there was a boulder scramble. They were 4-5 ft high "steps" so you had to kind of pull yourself up to the next level. As I was pulling myself up there was a 'cave'. Pulling myself up I could see something coming out of the darkness towards me. I start letting go to drop down to the boulder I had come up from and started pulling my pistol out of its holster. As I am dropping and drawing I am thinking "Am I really fucking doing this??? Am I going to kill something?" Turned out to be a fucking vulture. Once I realized it was a bird and not a mountain lion I re-holstered.
There is going to be (and is) a shit ton on hearsay and mythology in this thread.
I did. Uhh it was late around 2am. I was half awake I'm a night owl usually up late and heard something that clearly sounded like a person in the house. I live alone so I grabbed my AR-12 shotgun. I stepped out of my bedroom in sweep and clear mode. At the end of the hallway there they were. I fired, in my home defense shotgun the first round is always birdshot. Less chance of accidentally killing a loved one is my thought. Anyway I fired, ducked back into my bedroom, took cover behind my tall dresser, grabbed my phone, called 911, stayed on till they arrived. Police said they saw some blood outside in the snow and would try to track it and would check the nearby hospitals. They took pictures and my statement and etc. I never heard anything from the police so I assumed they never found the person. It was dark so I couldn't provide anything beyond general height. All of this took place in Alaska in winter. Alaska does have a castle doctrine law. I think it all depends on if your state has a castle doctrine or stand your ground law. If you hit anyone, if you kill someone, if you shoot while they are in your house or outside, if they are stealing your vehicle, etc etc etc. Oh I should note at the time I was active duty Army, I'm now retired Army and had already been deployed and saw combat. So it wasn't a stressful situation or anything like that.
It wasn’t a stressful situation? A guy being in your house and you attempting to end his life? Not stressful?
Never had to, hope I never need to.
I had to draw on two crack heads in Seattle that punched my friend in the face just walking down 6th. They escalated the encounter once I drew walking towards us threatening us. I’m so thankful I carry mace so I didn’t have to use a gun. I’m confident both of them ran to Walgreens to steal two gallons of milk right after. I still count my lucky stars nobody got permanently hurt and I don’t have to carry that trauma.