Well, nobody shot him, and things turned out for the best. Good idea to think about how difficult it would be, though. A man's got to know his limitations.
Indeed.
lawofselfdefense.com
To use lethal force, 5 elements have to be present.
I see 4 elements present.
The last is Reasonableness. In short, would a reasonable person shoot the 12 year old?
If he is cute and innocent looking, does that make him less deadly?
I have never even thought of such a scenario in all my training.
I look forward to Andrew Branca's assessment and I think this short video will stir his conscience.
Most lethal force situations are not super complicated.
You either have all 5 elements or you are going to jail.
It may even be easier to live with myself to take a not fatal bullet injury than to kill a 12 year old. A bullet injury can take a couple years off your life but even worse to live with the heartache of killing a 12 year old.
You can't fall into that trap in a life and death situation though. You need to get training in the use if lethal force if you think this...
If a XXXXX boy enters my house and poses a lethal threat - would I shoot him?
If a XXXXX boy enters my house and poses a lethal threat - would I shoot him?
No matter who your attacker is you can only shoot if there is an imminent and unavoidable threat of grievous bodily injury or death.
You can't be judgemental on looks and only use lethal force if it's necessary.
I refer to the story of the young kid who fired many rounds from his AR while indoors at people who were trying to kill him. You may say - "Oh, I'd never shoot an AR indoors as it could cause permanent hearing loss for the rest of my life." Well if you have good judgement and those attackers are about to kill you - you MUST defend yourself.
A foolish person could say - there are attackers and I can get away with killing them - but I'd go deaf for the rest of my life. Therfore I wont shoot them. If that is your rationale - you are not justified to using lethal force. If you are justified in using lethal force then you have no options - it's a last resort. Not using lethal force would NOT be reasonable because you would likely end up with grievous woulds or be killed.
If possible I think you should yell "Don't Move!!!" and "Drop the knife!" but in so many cases the attack is underway and there is no negotiation at that point.