Reply #44: LOL!!!

[Cthulu_2004]

"I guess we need to rethink our idea of running a tripwire through our apartment which would let-loose a guillotine on an unsuspecting burgular, eh :)"

yup...they're flat-out illegal everywhere, even Texas.

In an after-the-fact review of your actions, the cops and prosecutors really don't have a whole lot to go on. However, the presence of a weapon like you described can very easily swing their opinion from thinking it was self-defense to thinking you're some kind of mideval weapons freak who was laying in wait for the first unsuspecting burglar to come along.

The law is kind of screwy. Often, if you THINK that they are armed, that's all that it takes unless circumstances would make a reasonable person know that they were unarmed. For instance, if a person caught a burglar at gunpoint, ordered him to his knees, and tied his hands behind his back and then shot him, well, that person's going to go away for a VERY long time because there's no basis for a reasonable belief that they are armed and a threat. On the other hand, if a burglar is carrying his lunch in his pocket, and reaches for his lunch to offer you a sandwich or a banana, so the person shot him thinking the bulge was a weapon, not many jurisdictions would prosecute.

Another thing to keep in mind is gender and race issues. I do not support this, I'm merely stating "the way it is" given the imperfect society that we live in. If a female is alone in the house and shoots an unarmed male burglar, she's less likely to be prosecuted than if a man did it. The same is unfortunately true of race. Size does matter, also. A 300 pound biker who shoots an unarmed 150 pound burglar is going to have a lot harder time avoiding prosecution than if the situation is reversed. So, if you're a white woman who weighs under a hundred pounds and are confronting a black male who weighs 230 pounds, you can pretty much blast away. There aren't going to be a whole lot of people who would think that the 98 pound white woman wasn't in fear for her life. That's a hell of a commentary on our society, isn't it? :grr: