All bets are off once the gun comes out. There is just too little case law and too much legal ambiguity to know for sure. But, if I were in a life or death self defense situation I don't think any law, regardless of how punitive, would matter much to me.
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FOPA in Massachusetts
- Thread starter Guggie
- Start date
All bets are off once the gun comes out. There is just too little case law and too much legal ambiguity to know for sure. But, if I were in a life or death self defense situation I don't think any law, regardless of how punitive, would matter much to me.
If you are in your car, and you still have driving room, your best bet from both a tactical and a legal situation would be to keep driving and get off the X.
In MA (and most other states), if you are outside of your home you must retreat if it is safe to do so. If your car can still move and you still have room to drive, I think you would have a hard time making the legal case that you could not retreat from the situation, but instead had to 1) stop, 2) go around to your trunk, 3) retrieve gun from case, 4) load gun.
Just drive away.
namedpipes
NES Member
But he was run off the road by a deranged trucker. His is thrown clear of the wreck, but his leg is broken with white pointy things sticking out of his shin. The engine block is wrapped around a pole and the trunk split open. The locked case was thrown to the ground next to him and the locked ammo case lands next to that..
The trucker is getting out the cab, pulling a shotgun with him, screaming obscenities and coming towards him.
Allen Funt is nowhere to be seen.
He has just enough time to open the cases, load the pistol and point it at the trucker as the trucker reaches him, levels the shotgun, screams "I'm going to KILL YOU" and starts to pull the triggers...
You suddenly recall reading in the paper about a series of similar highway killings recently, killer never caught, and you know you're going to die if you don't shoot.
OK, so that's pushing the envelope a little.
![[laugh]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/012.gif "Laugh [laugh]")
I think I'd take the shot under those circustances, regardless of the outcome.
All very reasonable and I'm sure that sort of argument sounds good on the floor of the state legislature, but the fact is that stuff happens in real life to confound all the simple assurances. The scenario came up in the first place because I had been thinking in terms of mystery story plots. (I'm not a writer, but I read a lot of mysteries.) I'm thinking a PI from CT goes to VT to interview a guy. On the way back, some guy in the lane next to him on 91 takes a shot at him. Our hero jams on the brakes and comes to a stop on the shoulder. He sees the other car stop too. He exits the car and runs back to the trunk. He sees the other car coming back towards him in reverse. He takes out the gun.... Other car drives away. Trooper stops. Our hero is toast.
Now it's all well and good to say he should drive away, but it's likely if he tried to take off past the bad guy, he would come under fire again. The Staties don't encourage high speed evasive driving by amateurs either, of course.
Anyway, I can see the basis for a novel of the Scott Thurow-type here. (Thurow himself was a prosecutor in Illinois, so I don't think he's likely to take the pro-gun side.) Hero breaks up a shooting spree and saves lives. DA prosecutes for gun crime. (No good deed goes unpunished.) Parents of children saved from death raise hell in the political system. Big courtroom drama. Hero goes to jail. "Far, far better thing I do..."
Title: Gun Control
Our hero should never have come to stop. Keep moving. Hitting a moving car is hard. Hitting a moving car while driving is even harder.
As vellenueve stated, your car is both your best escape route and your best weapon.
The advice to keep driving to escape the danger isn't coming from a legal perspective but from a purely tactical one. Distance is your friend. As far as it being a true life-or-death situation, possible legal repercussions won't even budge your give-a-damn meter.
Ken
Ken
