How to React After Shooting a Home Intruder

Steps

1. Ensure that it is safe to do so, and then:

2. Dial 9-1-1 and ask for an ambulance and the police. Explain to them that you shot at an intruder out of fear for your life. Tell them that you have a gun.

3. If it is safe to do so, check the condition of the intruder and report this all to the 9-1-1 operator. How badly is he wounded? Where was he hit? Is he dead or just wounded?

4. If the danger has passed, (the intruder may not be alone) put the gun away in a secure place, unloaded. The officers that respond to your call may want to retrieve the weapon for evidence. The worst thing you can do is approach the police holding a gun. When the police arrive, simply tell them you you fired your gun out of fear for your life. Do NOT provide any additional details, just say "I shot out of fear for my life." Once you get the story straight with your attorney, then and ONLY then do you want to give the police details.

5. If requested to do so by the police, (as this may destroy/contamiate evidence) walk around the house and the areas of the entry way, to allow the police to see how the intruder got into your house.

6. You will almost certainly be arrested. Speak to an attorney before speaking to the police.

Tips

* Never say that you were shooting "only to injure" the person. The laws are that you are only allowed to shoot out of fear for your life, and if you really felt your life was in danger, you would not simply "shoot to injure" - you would shoot to stop the threat. Your attorney will be able to further explain this to you.

* Always make sure that you, and your family, are safe.

* Unlocked guns can be found by kids, and any firearm is considered to 'always be loaded' even if you think it's not, so lock them up in a safe. On the other hand, any gun in a safe takes longer to get to in desperate situations. Whether you lock it up or not depends on if you have kids around.

Warnings

* You still can get in trouble, even if you were defending yourself, if the intruder was killed outside of the house. Once he leaves then according to law, he is no longer harming anyone, and it is then you who are responsible for his death (if he dies).

* Some states have passed "Castle Doctrine Laws" that allow you to protect your home and family with deadly force. As of February 2010 only Iowa (Law does not require retreat from home, but may require retreat within the home), Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Virginia, and The District of Columbia have no known Castle Doctrine. However, the laws vary from state to state so make sure you know the laws that apply to you.

http://www.wikihow.com/React-After-Shooting-a-Home-Intruder

What with all these pro gun threads?

How about some advice about cleaning up after you blast someone with a 12 gauge? Is there a product I can use for blood AND brains?

I spent some time in some other forums, and got sick of agreeing with people all the time.....

which is fine as that's the rules on DU. It's their forum and therefore their football.

It does make it easy to find posts on the law and firearms if you are interested and easier to avoid them if you are not.

My, how telling.

I'm pro-RKBA Democrat and I post in many forums.

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Americans are currently arming themselves to the teeth.

There was one reality where civil, law abiding citizens abhorred guns and violence, leaving that all to the TV, the police and the government. I mean, "Oh, you touched a gun? You must be a criminal or a miscreant!"

Now, we are getting down to the nitty-gritty where that all goes full circle, so I would advise those living in comfortable bubbles to open their minds to the bottom line of a decaying society/culture where survival supplants sweet notions of civility. This does not mean that all reason and peaceful thinking goes out the window, it just means we have to get used to dealing with firearms and deadly force more in real life than we once did. It seems intelligent to reckon with this fact and reality rather than to knee-jerk react to it as we usually see. Being condescending or appalled seems to be naive when you are on the verge of breakdown and see people reacting from survival levels, rather than on higher levels of abstraction.

When you are a city person and you move to the country, you find that guns are not such an evil thing in general. On a piece of land with no one around for miles, a gun can be just like a shovel and is treated as such. When a wild or rabid animal accosts you, you really need one. When the local constabulary will not arrive for a good while, you need something to deal with a violent intruder.

I do wish that thoughtful, intelligent people would embrace the reality behind weapons, regardless of how abhorrent the whole idea may seem. We do have tons of arms that we have funded with our taxes that are used in our name everday to blow thousands of people away, don't we? We seem to ignore that horrible, bloody fact while we express righteous indignation towards arms here at home. Odd.

Like them or not, (and I do not advocate violence or weapons in general) liberals and progressives might benefit from laboring to understand the whole phenomena of weapons for this species and how they relate to us, our history and our circumstances in general. That is, in lieu of invectives against them, fired from ivory towers and lifestyles where they are not yet necessary for survival. Like it or not, get your head out of the conceptual abstraction and into the historical light of day. Not liking guns and weapons is not going to change anything, but understanding them and why they are still a factor just might.

Alienation from a vital issue is not a viable means of changing the circumstances that create it.

Great to be here.

Just my POV from experience. Everyone's mileage will vary.

"When you are a city person and you move to the country, you find that guns are not such an evil thing in general."

Guns are not useful exclusively in rural areas. And Civil Rights should never be apportioned by geography or population density.

My apology for utilizing hyperbole in my missive.

I would like to add that I would sincerely prefer to see our species transcend arms and violence and actually become truly civilized someday, so don't consider me an advocate beyond the practical aspects of the matter. We won't get there by avoiding the facts of survival and what leads us to this matter, for sure. Live and let live is a great way to start, but who will?

purely from a pragmatic level. A good start. Gotta eat and hit the rack, I'll be back tomorrow.

No, only the reactionary paranoid are.

Like the people who think all guns everywhere should be banned because they are TEH EEEEEVILLL1!!1!!1! ?

We have a lot of reactionary paranoid here?

:toast:

a recent poll here on DU showed that 32% of the people who replied were NRA members.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=295671&mesg_id=295671

Another recent poll here showed that 62% of the posters who replied owned one or more guns and 4% lived in a household where someone else owned a firearm.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=295760&mesg_id=295760

I have no good advise about cleaning up after shooting someone with a 12 gauge and I hope I never have to learn how to.

Your tongue.

you will NOT "almost certainly be arrested"

i know of three recent cases like this in the last two years. (i did some followup on two of them)

in NONE were the homeowners arrested.

other than that, it's decent advice.

was a certainty that you would be arrested. I'd bet this poster has recently read "In The Gravest Extreme" my Mossad Ayoob. Anyone that keeps firearms for personal protection would do well to read that book.

in certain very backwards places like NYC.

in WA state, it has never been the case.

I'd recommend The Truth About Self-Protection over In The Gravest Extreme, not least because the former was written partly to supplant the latter.

I'd also recommend investing in a copy of The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker (though you can ignore the passive-aggressive appendix on firearms).

The first thing you do after a violent encounter in which you USE a firearm, is RELOAD.

You tell the dispatcher that YOU are in control of the scene, and YOU have a firearm, and that YOU WILL accept instructions from the responding officer to the scene.

dump the pieces in varous dumpsters.

Fewer questions.

You're wasting good meat...

:sarcasm: ...just in case...

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Not even particularly common, thankfully.

You have my sincere condolences for your suffering.

"Get a lawyer; you just shot your significant other/ kid/ friend or parent.

(the last has been true in EVERY "home intruder" shooting that has effected friends/ acquaintances of mine, tragically enough)."

Your experience = all?

In the two instances I am personally acquainted with, the intruder was NOT related or otherwise known by the defender.

But under state law, you're allowed to defend the inside of your home. Your vehicle is also considered an extension of your home.

TIPS

1, Motion lights on porch to discourage break ins.

2, Window stickers that say "Alarm System" even if you don't have one to discourage break ins.

3. simple stops in the sash of windows that prevent entering a window.

4. Dead bolts on all exterior doors.

5. Replace all standard screws in door hardware, hinges, dead bolts and strikers with 3x8 screws. Make it hard to kick in doors.

6. Use either a walk-in closet or a bathroom as a safe room. Put a dead bolts lock on it and replace the screws in hinges and strikers with 3 inch screws. Keep a phone in the safe room with your fire arm or have them handy to take in with you. If you have an intruder go in the safe room and call 911. Tell dispatch that you are in a safe room and armed. Stay on the line and if the intruder tries to inter, yell STOP or I'll shoot. Repeat often. Do this so dispatch will have a recording with proof that you had no choice but to shoot. Show the reporting officer all the steps you took to keep the intruder out.

These steps will keep 95% of intruders out in the first place. They may save you all of that clean up of blood and brains on the new carpet. They will also insure that you did everything possible to protect yourself and used deadly force only as a last resort.

All of these steps can cost less than a few hundred dollars.

Be safe.

If you do have an alarm system, put up stickers for a different brand. Advertising which brand you have gives any prospective burglar the opportunity to do his homework on the weaknesses of that brand's systems. If he's studied a different brand, it may at least wrong-foot him.

mine are of a fake company. Ohio has really dumb crooks, or they didn't become crooks because they are all that smart.

I've thought about making some of my own up. I ordered mine on the net. You can now buy them at Lowe's for self installed systems.


Real cheap to buy fake security cameras too.

At one time I had a monitored system that I never cared much for. Too cheap to spend $30/month. You can get a monitoring service on your own now for about $10/month. I bought a $50 motion sensor phone for when I'm away. If it detects an intruder it calls my cell phone and I can listen to what he's up to and have the Sheriff Dept on speed dial. If I don't hear anything going on, I can just call a neighbor to look out the window to see if anything is going on.

Some of these things are great to help seniors that live alone. Help them stay a little safer and feel like they can stay in their home longer.

It's been a few years, but an acquaintance used to own club out on the county line. He had security cameras installed to include the parking lot. The best piece of video tape had thug one look close up into the camera, call his buddy who was helping break into cars, over to look too. They were laughing at how they weren't fooled by the "fake" camera.

Fortunately, that particular pair of criminals was well-known to local sheriff for smash and grab crimes and the case was quickly solved.

If your house represents a harder target than other houses in the immediate area, the theif will be more likely to choose a more opportunistic dwelling. Usually a security sign, motion lights, glass block windows, dog (or dog sign), and shatterproof window laminate will make your neighbors 10X easier targets. This will deter most robbers bacause they are lazy looking for an easy score. After that, the only thing you'd ever need a gun for is if a criminal targets you for some reason.

We have a front porch light that always stays on, security lights on the side of the house and the front of the garage and a dog. We might even have a security sign in the flower bed... I don't remember. When we redo the basement next tax refund (2011) the windows will be switched to glass block and I will put security film on 1st floor windows.

a motion detector that goes thru walls. Its' alarm is a barking dog. Great for a garage, as the person gets closer the barking gets louder and louder. It's about $65.
I use to leave the porch lights on. I recently replace the one on the side door(on an alley) and the front porch one with motion detector lights to save energy. They were $32 apiece. I have a motion detector light above my garage door in the alley also.

I haven't seen any shatterproof window laminate, I'll have to look. That'd be great for the 2 single pain windows in the garage.

There are quite a few makers... but the gist of it is that it's like window tinting only clear and about 7-10mils thick.
Put it on one or both sides of the window and a burgler will need a bat/crowbar and a few minutes to hack through it.
Ever see a store door window break but not shatter? That's security film. Car window shields use the same thing.

The neighbor of one my brothers-in-law had a device like that, but he installed it too close to the sidewalk, so it was constantly going off. It drove everyone up the wall except the neighbor in question, who had a hearing problem in that frequency range, and thus couldn't hear the accursed thing. It only took a few seconds before you could tell it was fake, too. So failure in every aspect there.

You can get a steel door for about a hundred bucks at Home Depot. They are no joke to kick in if mounted as you describe. And use the deadbolt. It makes a difference.

I like the advise on a safe room.

"You leakin' . "

This thread is full of fail. I'm not sure of where to even begin.

Excellent read, and excellent basic information on post-shooting scenario.

In my humble opinion, basic reading for anyone choosing to own firearms or considering using a firearm for self-defense.

A bit dated perhaps, but he's also published other more current publications like The Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry, and The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery, which are great, and more current, companions to "Gravest Extreme".

Xela

Okay... so that was for the non-humor impaired. :smoke:


For them, and everyone else... if it comes down to dropping the hammer and the aftermath... under no circumstances talk to or
answer any questions from the police regarding the incident without a lawyer present, no matter how right or wrong you were.

Name, rank and SSN... that's it because even if you're cleared of all charges and/or charges aren't even filed, the next of kin will be
looking for a payout.

Best advice when questioned, is to say that you're too stressed out or still in shock to answer any questions at the moment.

Ohh yeah... and good luck getting your gun back. :grr:

"Name, rank and SSN... that's it because even if you're cleared of all charges and/or charges aren't even filed, the next of kin will be
looking for a payout."

In Texas and several other states, under those circumstances you can not win a suit for "wrongful death". The level of evidence for a criminal prosecution is much higher than for a civil case. Therefor if you are no billed, or found not guilty, or found innocent you are immune from a civil suit.

Oneshooter
Armed and livin in Texas

Because in a typical self-defense shooting case, the fact are not in dispute: you put one or pieces of high-velocity lead into someone else, resulting in severe physical trauma, possibly death. The onus is upon you to convince the court that you were justified in doing so.

I'd be working on my lawsuit with the perp's estate for the cost of ammo and a professional cleaning-up of the perp's blood off my floor.

Then we'll go for the emotional distress caused to me and my family by being forced to kill someone.

I have a pair of rubber-plastic beach thongs that I wear with socks, but I couldn't fit all that in the subject line... :-)

'absorb' his spirit! :-)

In addition to "I feared for my life" add "or sexual assault."

Many states have fear of sexual assault for women as an added criteria for a legitimate defensive shooting.

Even if they don't believe you feared for your life, it's might be easier to prove fear of sexual assault.