Current Location: Home : Firearms : Juuhoukata Chap. 1-2
This is another section you may be tempted to skip, but don't. The popular saying is "Better to be tried by twelve than carried by six"; but you could save yourself an enormous amount of grief and legal expense by knowing what the laws are. I would love to be able to provide a complete list of the laws pertaining to handguns, concealed carry, and use of deadly force in all 50 states; but laws are fluid and changing, and what I present now might not be valid next year. I can give brief generalizations, but I cannot offer legal advice, and this section should not be misconstrued as such. Contact the District Attorney's office in your state for advice on the laws that pertain to you. Some questions to ask:
A person is justified in using force which is intended to or likely to cause death or great bodily harm only if he/she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury to himself/herself or a third person or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
Dissecting that bit of legalese brings us to the basic premise of deadly force: that it's not justifiable except to prevent your death or someone else's. No other reason is valid or even considerable. You may wish to shoot the burglar that's running away from your house with your VCR under his arm, but your life is not in danger at that moment. For your life or someone else's to be in danger, the assailant would have to possess three things: Ability, Opportunity, and Jeopardy.
We'll use a simple example. You're standing on the street corner. Fifty feet away stands a menacing thug with a switchblade knife in his hands. Are the three elements present? No. He has the ability to kill you... he's a good foot and a half taller than you and heavily muscled, and looks like he knows how to use that knife. But there is no opportunity... he could not possibly kill you with that knife from 50 feet away.
Now suppose he's standing next to you with the knife; cleaning his fingernails with it and talking to his friends. Now, there's ability again, and opportunity- it would be trivially simple for him to turn and stab you with it. But, there is no jeopardy.. he is not threatening you in any way with the knife. Only when all three elements are present, and will seem that way when explained to a jury later, is deadly force justified. The defense of property is almost never a justifiable use of deadly force. Even if the fleeing man just stole the Hope diamond from your house, you will not be justified in killing him if the three elements are not present. You should also be aware that in addition to being held criminally liable by your state, you may also be subject to civil actions... the kind that don't put you in jail, but drain your life savings. On top of that, you may be subject to charges of federal civil rights violations.
Concealed carry issues are an even muddier topic, especially given the myriad of laws that exist from state to state. We will discuss concealed carry techniques later on; but be absolutely certain of the laws in your state before you implement them. The penalties for carrying a weapon illegally can be quite severe. If you travel from state to state with a firearm, find out the laws for each state you will be travelling through. Your state may place stringent restrictions on the ownership of firearms; or it may allow quite liberal concealed carry. It is up to you to find out what you can and can't do legally- ignorance of the law will be no excuse if you're caught.
This all seems rather harsh and frightening... but it is the reality of taking another person's life. It is not something to be trivialized or taken lightly, and there is no way to emphasize that point enough.