Don't fire a warning shot at an intruder into your home. Actually shoot the son of a bitch, and maintain--always maintain--that you were in fear for your life.
Otherwise? Yeah. The idiots in charge will arrest you and charge you with a felony, because since the scumbucket ran from your warning shot, you obviously weren't in any danger to begin with.
17 minutes ago
Yes. Unfortunately I teach that if you present the firearm you need to be shooting at the bad guy. For a lot of reasons. Hell, I even tell my students that if they present in public and no shots are fired they need to call 911 and tell them what happened. Just in case someone else saw it go down not in context and THEY call 911.
ReplyDeleteSigh.....
I didn't mention it in the post, but there's also the factor that shooting the attempted thief prevents him from re-offending, possibly more violently next time.
DeleteI wrote a post about this incident.....
DeleteBasically, my point was: RULE # 1 ABOUT HOME INVASION: YOU SHOOT FIRST AND ASK QUESTIONS LATER!
http://oldcatman-xxx.com/?p=21728
Exactly. You can't exactly tell if it's a drunk kid thinking he's climbing into his bedroom window or someone who's bent on beating (and possibly killing) you in the course of robbing you quick enough at two in the morning to justify waiting to be sure. If you wait...you're dead.
DeleteI think this is a case of reverting to training. Dude was an Iraq vet, and the ROE we had when I deployed said fire a warning shot. That changed mid tour, for us in Afghanistan. Too much danger from ricochet and civilians were getting killed, they said. I just said "Duh" and moved on.
ReplyDeleteProbably.
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