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by 2022-11-07 1318 days ago
There's really not many cases where the risk/reward for a law-abiding citizen owning a gun is worth it, assuming the risk is protection from other people. Unless you're in a gun-friendly state and are 100% sure the gun never leaves the state you're risking massive legal action on both state and federal level for breaking the law.

The laws are ridiculously complicated because there's The Law, The Constitution, and The Courts which has to reconcile the laws with the constitution since they're usually not in agreement. In some states it's illegal to be the victim of a gun robbery if the robber uses your gun, sometimes unless you take some specific precautions.

And if you actually use your gun in the context of protecting yourself from someone else, the laws don't get any easier. In most states there's a very limited set of circumstances in which it's legal to kill someone, and it's not going to be obvious in the moment. Unless you work for the government, don't expect the jury to give you the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully you recorded everything.

After the fact it's often obvious that, yeah of course if this happens you need to fill out this specific form and notify this person and of course just telling the secretary doesn't count, and of course you should have a record of everything, etc etc etc. But nothing is obvious in the moment, and people have done some really stupid things because a cop told them, yeah that's good enough, because cops aren't trained in law and they're word doesn't overrule the law.

2 comments

I believe your information is outdated. "Castle doctrine" laws have been enacted in nearly every state. [1] In states with these laws, there is no "duty to retreat" from your home or any place where you can legally be. It is unlikely that a prosecutor would even bring charges under most conditions. The conditions are detailed on the Wikipedia page.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine#State-by-state...

My info is outdated then. I only know gun owners from the non-green states ont hat map. I didn't realize the castle doctrine was so widespread.
ever heard the expression "it's better to be judged by twelve than to be carried by six" ?