Quote:
Originally Posted by ivanputski
I wonder: if he was jumped by 3 UNARMED attackers, and getting beat up pretty good (but not near death) and the guy pulls a pistol and injures/kills an attacker, is he off the hook? Is it equal force/ i'm just not so sure these days. Victims rights seem to take a back seat to the criminals rights.
Sure, you might prove in a court of law that you felt your life was in danger, but that will be 2 years and 200,000$ later.
So my question is: if you are carrying a pistol, and you get attacked by fists, do you fight back with fists, or go straight for the pistol?
This is trickier than most of us think.
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Yes - Be very careful. Even giving advise on this topic is risky so here's my disclaimer - I am not a legal or law enforcement professional and below is only my opinion.
You have to have exhausted every possible way to avoid the use of deadly force AND someone's
life must be in immediate danger. Even in your own house, if you were home alone and an un armed attacker entered the front door and you popped him instead of running out the back door, you're going to face legal trouble.
I know someone who narrowly avoided charges for showing a shady character that he was carrying a gun and telling him he would use it if the guy gave him a legal reason to. The guy reported him by name and an officer came to his house the next morning to write a report. The office told him that if the shady character wasn't a career criminal and wanted to press charges, he'd have been in some trouble.
I hold a class A and have only carried live a handful of times. I used to be a diesel mechanic and did a lot of work on fishing boats at the Boston, Gloucester and New Bedford fish piers in the middle of the night. I can't carry in a wetsuit and would never leave a gun in my car over night.
I don't even have hand guns in the house right now because I have young kids and the protection is not worth the risk. Instead, I have a 160lb great dane ( and still growing) that isn't going to let anyone climb through my windows at night.
Also consider this - The attackers actually have a gun but haven't pulled it. You pull yours and now they're defending themselves. You might end up shot and now the story charges from you pulled a gun on them in the dark and they had no choice but to defend themselves. And yes, at that point, their life was in immediate danger and there is no chance to run when someone is in the process of pulling a gun. You could and up shot and facing serious charges, if you survive.
You'd think it would be different but Mass doesn't discriminate. Just like they protect EBT fraud criminals, illegal aliens and crooked positions, thugs have rights too.
Under Mass laws, Zimmerman would have gone to jail for sure.