Castle Doctrine

[Shek]

FIVE LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH, USA, AGES 15-24, 1998 CAUSE PERCENT OF TOP 5 NUMBERS

(1) Accidents 51.8% 12,752
(2) Homicide 21.3% 5,233
(3) Suicide 16.3% 4,003
(4) Cancer 6.8% 1,670
(5) Heart Disease 3.9% 961

Young, dumb, and full of . . .

[S2]

Guns & Self Defense

Never own a gun in self-defense you won't use.

Never aim a gun in self-defense whose trigger you won't pull.

Never pull a trigger in self-defense without intending to kill.

If the answer is "yes" to all three, then you've the preferred mode of self-defense.

I've never owned a personal weapon in my life. Not a pistol, knife, brass-knuckles. Only been attacked once as an adult and didn't feel my life was in danger then.

[JAD_333]

Is 4 ga too big? I'd think that 6 ga might be a better balance between mass and swing speed :))

Naw; believe me 3 ft of 4/0 aluminum wire grips well and will definitely get your attention. :)

Also, I see that you're no traditionalist having traded in a nice Hickory or Ash Louisville slugger. Lastly, why not just do the job the old-fashioned, Tanya Harding way, and get the tire iron out

Tradition be damned when there's an intruder in the house. Next you'll be having me put on batting gloves before taking a swing. Tire iron? Yeah, if you happen to be attacked while rotating your tires.:)

[omon]

i can't believe 2 ppl voted for running from their own house, and let intruder do whatever they want, damn,,,, assuming intruder even lets you go, he might have another plans. unbelivable

[Capsoda]

Jesus is dead mate. Why do you speak of this myth in the present tense?

Now if that were true there would only be one country, the one with the left over nukes.

Never own a gun in self-defense you won't use.

That's one I don't have to worry about either. My weapons are for strictly offensive purposes. ;) I always say "Come as a friend or you'd best go down the road". I used to be out in the boonies but it is growing up around here so I stay as ready.

[Pace ac Bellum]

I most avidly support the castle doctrine. Even thought Maryland is red, I have been told that i have to move to my last defensible position - then if i am in danger i can then defend myself. Told by a MD State police officer

[kisakhani]

When your home is invaded by armed person and their body language indicates violence.
Then calling 911 is futile and the only way to save yourself is to diligently to overpower the intruder.

[StevoJH]

Australian Gun Control Facts:
YouTube - Australian Gun Control Facts
Obviously the Australian Gun Control Facts video was put out by the US gun lobby.
Yes, we did have a huge turn change of thinking after the mass shootings at Port Arthur where a lone gunman killed 35 and wounded 21. Even the Americans haven't broken that record, yet. The Govt made all semi auto firearms a prohibited weapon and had a "buy back" as compensation. Any weapon that was semi auto or had a pistol grip was banned. I handed in a .22 Winchester semi auto along with a Browning semi auto 12 gauge. A mate of my father won a trophy at a shooting club, the trophy was a gold and jade inlayed semi auto shotgun. It had to be handed in also. The Govt wouldn't let him make it unusable so as to keep the trophy. It hurt having to hand them in but the buy back price was more way more than I paid for them. All weapons must be locked in an approved gun safe and ammo locked in another safe, a distance apart. If, as a licensed gun owner, you used your gun to defend yourself, you would be in deep dodos as by the time you got the weapon from the safe and ammo from the other safe, you could have called the cops or told the intruder to leave, and if he did not leave, tell him to leave again.

The Australian situation is we have no castle doctrine. We can only use reasonable force to defend our self's. We don't have the right to bear arms and I'm glad we don't have that right. I believe the main cause of death on males under 30 is gun shot wounds (please correct me if I'm wrong) then something is wrong.

I also believe that we should have the right to defend our property from intruders. The law says that we may only use reasonable force to defend ourselves against an intruder. We cant shoot them, hit them with a baseball bat, unless we are being attacked. All we can do is to ask the to leave and call the police. If an intruder falls over because one of your kids left a toy out, in law, the intruder could sue your public liability insurance.

Having been the victim of a home invasion where I had to defend my self and the intruder was injured, due to him running into a door jam, five times, I find that intruders tend to be very uncoordinated hence the running into the door jam again and again, the fact that my hand was holding the back of his head had nothing to do with it.

I have trouble with the right to bear arms; it may have been great when it was introduced, but seeing as it's part of the US constitution it will be almost impossible to remove.

The bottom line is, as an Australian I have no right telling the people of the US how to run your lives or Govt, the above is purely an observation and an opinion.

Freddie

Note, I don't have any firearm's and unless I move somewhere in the country probably wont get any (unless I took up target shooting). And for those who read my location, I live in on campus at university, so no "weapons" of any sort allowed.

If the News paper articles are to be believed....

- Only fire if your life is danger.
- Don't fire warning shots, because if you have time to fire a warning shot your life is not in danger (and lots of bad thing happen to you).
- Shoot to kill, because they can sue you for injuries if they survive.

Of course since firearms have to be stored in a locked gun safe with the ammunition stored in a separate locked container, you are unlikely to have one to hand anyway, unless you had it out for whatever reason.

Police run random checks on fire arms storage, if you are caught improperly storing firearms you lose your license, the firearms are confiscated and you either get a fine of several thousand dollar's or go to prison.

Edit: 10 years after the new laws there are still people finding gun's in wall's and roof's in houses. :D

[kisakhani]

First of all proper security system should be established and followed.Weapon
should be the secondary criteria to defend one's home. Weapon if used must
be used to disable the intruder to an extent that he/she becomes temporarily
invalid until the police arrive to take custody.Deliberately killing under the pretext of defending is nevertheless murder.

[Pace ac Bellum]

Castle Doctrine

It irks me laws only really affect law abiding citizens. Those who perpetrate the crime seem to have no regard to the laws and do not seem to mind paying the cost of being caught. Knowing full well most houses they enter are probably safer than a cell in prison.

We coddle or criminals and punish our tax paying citizens with burdensome, onerous laws that unless you have a law degree and a PHD in legal gibberish there is really no way the average citizen will fully understand the law.

The shadow of the doubt and a "tie" decision should go to the home owner. We used to hang people for stealing horses, now we slap the wrist of those who steal cars and make video games of them making grand theft auto an honorable past time.

We get what we deserve - but deserve so much better.

[RustyBattleship]

Just a few comments on some of the above posts.

Only the Professional Baseball leagues still use wooden bats. But they are not like the ones of olden days and have a very narrow stem thus resulting in more broken bats than before. If you have to whack a guy with a wooden bat and it breaks, but he doesn't go down, your in deep doo-doo. An aluminum bat won't break and is the best to have even for Whiffle ball. A friend of mine used a baseball bat once (when he was a kid in Kalamazoo, Michigan) to whack across the knuckles of a guy who was trying to climb in through his bedroom window.

For those of you who do not own any firearms for protection, collecting, target shooting or memorabilia -- what DO you have to protect your family? A Rotweiler? A Doberman Pincer? Just being facitious here as I knew a person who had a Bengal Tiger as a pet that he used in his magic acts. Encyclopedia salesmen never bothered him.

But swords make good weapons (though you need to be pretty close to the assailant and a thrust or parry is not as fast as a 9mm bullet). I have four swords. One heavy saber from India that was given to me by my mother when she used to own an antique shop, one lightweight dress saber for US Army cadets, another heavy saber that was my father-in-law's sword when he was in the Hungarian cavalry and a stainless steel cutlass with pirate embellishments on it just for costume parties (but it is sharp as the dickens).

Just a few weeks ago a young (and pretty) woman was walking up the sidewalk and a car was following her trying to coax her to get inside. I got my .357 out (but kept it in the holster) and ran up to the corner to protect her. It turned out she was just playing stubborn after having an argument with her boyfriend who was driving the car. But it first looked like an attempted abduction. They were very responsive to my questions to satisfy me that everything was all right -- and staring at that stainless steel D.A. Ruger all the time.

Back in the late 1950's when I was still living with my grandparents in Walteria (a suburb of Torrance) our dog was barking much differently than he would with a cat or other dog. At that time the only centerfire pistol I owned was a standard S-42 German Luger with 4-inch barrel. I went out into the back yard and looked around. The dog was by the back gate which was solid redwood as the rest of the fence and couldn't look through it. I swung the flashlight around a bit but also held the Luger high enough above the gate so it could be seen. Nothing happened. At least not then. As I walked back toward the house I could hear someone running like hell.

Also at the same house, we heard some noises in our driveway. I grabbed my model 94 Winchester and cocked it as I ran out. Whoever was in the driveway had already jumped into a car that was slowly backing up the street. When they saw me with the "Dirty Thirty" they went pedal to the metal backwards up the street and had to do a screeching turn when they got to the end of the street ---- right where the Torrance Chief of Police lived.

During the Watts riots I was kept busy "issueing" guns to various households of our family, including my mother who normally did not like guns (but was a very good shot with "Light" rifle .22 rimfire).

During the Rodney King riots I took the 1884 Dutch Beaumont off the wall over our fireplace and replaced it with one of my M-1 Garands -- WITH fixed bayonet.

While camping out on our land in Oregon I always have a .41 Magnum Ruger Blackhawk on my side. Not for anti-people but anti-bear. Ummm, oh yes, there was a couple of reports of a Big Foot up there as well. And in the truck is always my trusty Garand. In Desert areas I carry a Colt .45 ACP National Match with target loads for Rattlesnakes and Scorpions.

Tarantulas I leave alone as they are relatively harmless though ugly as hell. And the bigger they are, the less potent their venom is.

In my family, whenever we moved into a new house, we never considered the move complete until the gun cabinet was restocked and inventoried. That's just the way we've been brought up coming from America's northern heartland of Iowa and Wisconsin.

Oh, did I ever tell you that an ancestor (from Maryland) of one of my great aunts was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and his son was a signer of the Constitution?

Sure wish more of our present day "Leaders and Representatives" on Capitol Hill had that type of background.

[bonehead]

Just a few comments on some of the above posts.

Only the Professional Baseball leagues still use wooden bats. But they are not like the ones of olden days and have a very narrow stem thus resulting in more broken bats than before. If you have to whack a guy with a wooden bat and it breaks, but he doesn't go down, your in deep doo-doo. An aluminum bat won't break and is the best to have even for Whiffle ball. A friend of mine used a baseball bat once (when he was a kid in Kalamazoo, Michigan) to whack across the knuckles of a guy who was trying to climb in through his bedroom window.

For those of you who do not own any firearms for protection, collecting, target shooting or memorabilia -- what DO you have to protect your family? A Rotweiler? A Doberman Pincer? Just being facitious here as I knew a person who had a Bengal Tiger as a pet that he used in his magic acts. Encyclopedia salesmen never bothered him.

But swords make good weapons (though you need to be pretty close to the assailant and a thrust or parry is not as fast as a 9mm bullet). I have four swords. One heavy saber from India that was given to me by my mother when she used to own an antique shop, one lightweight dress saber for US Army cadets, another heavy saber that was my father-in-law's sword when he was in the Hungarian cavalry and a stainless steel cutlass with pirate embellishments on it just for costume parties (but it is sharp as the dickens).

Just a few weeks ago a young (and pretty) woman was walking up the sidewalk and a car was following her trying to coax her to get inside. I got my .357 out (but kept it in the holster) and ran up to the corner to protect her. It turned out she was just playing stubborn after having an argument with her boyfriend who was driving the car. But it first looked like an attempted abduction. They were very responsive to my questions to satisfy me that everything was all right -- and staring at that stainless steel D.A. Ruger all the time.

Back in the late 1950's when I was still living with my grandparents in Walteria (a suburb of Torrance) our dog was barking much differently than he would with a cat or other dog. At that time the only centerfire pistol I owned was a standard S-42 German Luger with 4-inch barrel. I went out into the back yard and looked around. The dog was by the back gate which was solid redwood as the rest of the fence and couldn't look through it. I swung the flashlight around a bit but also held the Luger high enough above the gate so it could be seen. Nothing happened. At least not then. As I walked back toward the house I could hear someone running like hell.

Also at the same house, we heard some noises in our driveway. I grabbed my model 94 Winchester and cocked it as I ran out. Whoever was in the driveway had already jumped into a car that was slowly backing up the street. When they saw me with the "Dirty Thirty" they went pedal to the metal backwards up the street and had to do a screeching turn when they got to the end of the street ---- right where the Torrance Chief of Police lived.

During the Watts riots I was kept busy "issueing" guns to various households of our family, including my mother who normally did not like guns (but was a very good shot with "Light" rifle .22 rimfire).

During the Rodney King riots I took the 1884 Dutch Beaumont off the wall over our fireplace and replaced it with one of my M-1 Garands -- WITH fixed bayonet.

While camping out on our land in Oregon I always have a .41 Magnum Ruger Blackhawk on my side. Not for anti-people but anti-bear. Ummm, oh yes, there was a couple of reports of a Big Foot up there as well. And in the truck is always my trusty Garand. In Desert areas I carry a Colt .45 ACP National Match with target loads for Rattlesnakes and Scorpions.

Tarantulas I leave alone as they are relatively harmless though ugly as hell. And the bigger they are, the less potent their venom is.

In my family, whenever we moved into a new house, we never considered the move complete until the gun cabinet was restocked and inventoried. That's just the way we've been brought up coming from America's northern heartland of Iowa and Wisconsin.

Oh, did I ever tell you that an ancestor (from Maryland) of one of my great aunts was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and his son was a signer of the Constitution?

Sure wish more of our present day "Leaders and Representatives" on Capitol Hill had that type of background.

I do not normally invite those of the whacky California state to come northward, but you are welcome anytime.


Frankly I am surprised that so many states have a castle law considering the vehement anti gun legislation that is on the books. Could it be that sanity is winning after all.

[Guest]

Castle Doctrine

Oh hell! I guess Iraq and Afghanistan don't really count. I'm just guessing - does Castle doctrine apply there as well?

[NapalmHeart]

First of all proper security system should be established and followed.Weapon
should be the secondary criteria to defend one's home. Weapon if used must
be used to disable the intruder to an extent that he/she becomes temporarily
invalid until the police arrive to take custody.Deliberately killing under the pretext of defending is nevertheless murder.

When you're presented with a shoot/no shoot situation in self-defense, your fine-motor skills will be largely gone due to the adrenaline dump you'll experience. Shooting to disable is a fallacy and a good way to get yourself or a loved one hurt. The standard to be followed isn't shoot to kill, it's shoot to stop, with a shot (or shots) to the center of body mass. If you do this (depending on jurisdiction), you will not have committed murder if the perp dies.

[DragoonGuard]

Dead for some. Alive for others... This is probably not the place for a theological discussion.
Still wedded to my principles.

Apologies, - I shouldn't have made the remark.......