Sean Taylor Charged with Aggravated Assault

[PSUSkinsFan21]

Originally Posted by skinsguy

That's kind of a fine line though. The definition of self-defense according to the law might vary from what you think is self-defense. From what I have studied in the past, I believe you can shoot an intruder and claim self-defense in your house, but outside the house, things can be a different story.

It's actually even more restrictive than that. Actually, only in very few states can you actually shoot someone solely on the basis that they have broken into your house. The reasoning is that the right to property is inferior to the right to life. Therefore, (and I know this seems F'd up) a very large majority of states would find that the intruder's right to life supersedes your right to protect your property. As such, the only time you can shoot an intruder is when you are protecting the life or physical well-being of yourself or your family member. In other words, if you get up in the middle of the night, and catch a guy carrying your tv, you can't shoot him unless you have a legitimate fear that your life is in danger (for example, if he has a gun). Same thing for if you shoot him in the back if he starts to run.......do that and you will go to jail in most states because if he's fleeing, you can't claim you felt your life was in danger. If you catch him sneaking into your kids' bedroom, then in most states fire away because most juries will just assume your fear was reasonable. I know this seems messed up, and most of us would fire away at any guy climbing in our window, but the law doesn't actually allow you to in most states. In fact some states are still so messed up that they actually impose a duty on you to flee from your own house if you can before using deadly force against the intruder (fortunately that is a very small majority and most states have abolished the duty to flee your own residence).