Lawful Self Defence

[Fudzy]

Thought I'd add this as reference to future discussions on guns / self defense etc

Lawful Self Defence

I have addressed the topic before around the question asked, “Can my wife use my firearm if I’m not at home and…”
I was messaged over the weekend asking for me to republish that article but I since feel that perhaps the same topic needs to be revisited. (Please read right to the end and not up to the point where you get cross with what I have written)

The first thing that needs to be understood, and this is not negotiable, is that the Laws of the land, in fact the highest Law, the Constitution of the Republic is binding and has equal application to you, me and the guy breaking into your house. Number one in regards to our discussion here is that the right to life, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, is supreme. If you (or your spouse) are ready and willing to take a human life, by whatever means, and live with the personal, legal as well as spiritual and moral consequences then continue reading. (Because I assure you Newton said there will be consequences) The thing I find is that people who do not wear the mark of Cain have the most to say about the bravado of killing. The fact is there is no bravado. It is messy and will have long term repercussions for you and your family.

(For the back of your mind: A guy I know, who I assure you has helped many to their graves, told me about a house robbery he was involved in. He said there was an opportunity where he could have easily overpowered and disarmed one of the suspects, but he made an assessment of the entire situation and where it was going and chose not to let his children see him break a man’s neck. He chose to allow them to get away and take what they came for and not possibly make things worse.)

The simple legal answer is that if you have done your competency certification and have a licence for a firearm you already know the answer to the question posed on the first line of this article. That answer is no. If your spouse or whoever is not officially proficient or has a competency certificate of their own to use that type of firearm, under the Firearms Control Act, they may not handle it or even have access to it. We can choose to sidestep this, in the light of an emergency action and the preservation of innocent human life, and will examine it further.

There is a clause in the law, where your spouse may legally have co-use of your firearm. She will have to pass an official training course, proficiency test and receive a competency certificate. With this, there is absolutely no negative legal ramification for her using your firearm. If this is an avenue you wish to explore, have a talk to first your spouse and then your District Firearms Officer. If you have the cash, why not get your partner or spouse their own firearm? Something they are comfortable to handle and shoot. With a reasonable motivation, such as you are away from home and they have to protect the family, there is an extremely low probability a licence will be denied.

But in any decision, it will take time to have all these things in place. Your life could be in danger tonight. What do you do? Well I’m going to be harsh here and say you are a bit too late to be making those sorts of decisions now but I suppose now is better than never. There is not enough room in this article to go through the safety and procedures of your whole house, so have a look back on my articles on lighting and commandments of house robbery and car jacking. You in your bedroom with a gun are the absolute last line of defence. If you have built up effective layers of defence around you and your home, you will hopefully never have to be in that situation. Unfortunately, from the criminal’s point most houses are woefully easy to penetrate. It gets proven every day. House robberies are committed because crooks walk in though open front doors. Whether your wife has your gun or not is irrelevant because I absolutely guarantee she will be caught by surprise stirring something on the stove.
I don’t care how many times you “go to the range”. When the real action happens you are not standing with earmuffs and your larney holser on with a nicely lit target 10 metres away. You are dead asleep, in the dark and 99% chance your firearm is a good 30 seconds from being in your hand and operational and a torch is in the kitchen with the braai stuff. How do I know? I read the crime stats. The biggest issue you and I face, before we are anywhere near pulling a trigger, is creating a safe and secure environment that is way too difficult for the criminal to penetrate. Bad guys take the path of least resistance. They will go for the presented opportunities. They don’t want to have to work hard. That’s why they are criminals, and not investment bankers.

Even if it comes down to all of your really good security being breached, I’m still not completely happy arbitrarily having my wife (or yours) abandon her children to go marching down the passage to tackle and unknown foe, of unknown number and skill and armed with God knows what. She will die. She is outnumbered and they are better at what they do, besides not having much in the way of a conscience. The fact she has your gun in her hand is irrelevant. Nine point nine nine five times out of ten it will be taken off her, used on her and will join the ranks of stolen. Can you face that set of results? There must be a better plan than this.

Let us briefly go back to the law. You, me, your spouse, may not just shoot anyone who comes into your home. If you want that luxury, go live in Texas. Here, the law clearly states that a mortal threat must have already commenced or be imminent. NO….that does not mean you have to wait to be shot first. It means that you, as a reasonable person, must be pretty damn sure that the attacker’s intentions are illegal, against your life and those you protect and are really going to happen. If your perimeter beams go off and four minutes later you shoot at a shadow outside your window, GOD HELP YOU when you explain why you shot the Security Company response officer. If you are going to point a firearm at someone you better be ready to face whatever comes back your way. Nobody said there was no responsibility with owning the thing. That shooting must be your absolute last resort. You must be mentally and physically prepared for it.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=667664716625329&id=177582682300204

 

[Fudzy]

Continued

Jumping ahead a bit:
If you shoot anyone dead in self-defence a case of murder is still registered and you will have to explain your actions. Perhaps to a magistrate. If you wound someone or even shoot AT someone, a case of attempted murder can still be opened. Using a firearm is lethal force. It does not mean you are immediately arrested but an investigation will still take place for the satisfaction of the State that no unlawful action took place. Put your own son in this place. Let’s say he was made to break into a house on a dare and got shot for his troubles. You would want a complete investigation into the matter. The very same law applies to me as a Policeman. I cannot simply whip out my gun and plink away. I must also formally explain my actions.

So, let’s help you with some better answers. We will ignore for a moment how your spouse got your firearm in her hands. He/she, at that time, had true and sober beliefs that bad guys have broken into the house and are moving room to room collecting valuables and can be a possible physical threat. The best trick here is to have some contingency plans in place. You have to have a plot where if the chips are down your children will respond to your instructions and your family can retreat to a safe place. Here I remind you of an article I did on the Safe Room. Retreat. There is no cowardice in that. Keep out of their way (gun in hand). There is nothing worth stealing in the bathroom and that’s why I chose it as the best possible Safe Room. Get in, lock the door with the dead bolts you put there, get down, behind a wall (in the shower?) and stay there until help comes. (remember to pull the emergency phone from its place under your sink and start making calls) If determined attempts are made to the door you bellow repeatedly at the top of your voice “GET AWAY! I HAVE A GUN!” and if this fails and the lock looks like failing you could resort to warning shots. (Into the ceiling, Oscar!) I have not met many criminals who stick around at the sound of gunshots. Everyone has the instinct of self-preservation. When all is safe either by the arrival of the Police or Security Company, come out. Guess what? Nobody died. (Maybe the black mamba living in your roof will decide to move next door!)

You house was unlawfully broken into, it is clear that they retreated as far as they could to avoid confrontation. They held human life supreme by safeguarding themselves, the kids and even chose not to willy-nilly shoot the damn crooks either. As a bonus, a firearm did not fall into criminal hands. The person involved will have to explain truthfully to the most senior officer attending the scene what happened and how they conducted themselves and they may get a stern word about leaving your safe keys lying around. It is extremely unlikely they will be arrested or harassed further. It is not in anybody’s interest to prosecute or persecute a person who acted as lawfully and responsibly as possible. (I still prefer to be judged by twelve than be carried by six.)What have you go to do now? Claim from insurance and get a buddy to help replace a roof tile before it rains.

See I don’t want you to just survive. I want you to prevail. Survive means you scraped through looking like something the cat dragged in. Prevail means you walk out, healthy. Proud your actions were lawful and ethical. We are the good guys. We need to act like the good guys. We can’t break the law to do the “right” thing. This isn’t TV. We must preserve the moral high ground while preserving our lives and liberty and actually use the law which is founded to protect us. There is no such damn thing as “they have more rights than us” or “the law protects them”. I get utterly furious when I hear that because it comes from an ignorant and prejudiced set of values. Not an empowered and righteous person.

It is your life and that of your loved ones.
Take it seriously.

Sgt Stephen Clark
SAPS Westville

 

[hellfire]

Hmm... Warning shots? When you're already locked in the bathroom, shouted a verbal warning and the intruder is intent on opening the door? Honestly, you then Oscar the f@&$ into that door. (PS not going into the de/merits of going into the bathroom in the first place)

 

[Fudzy]

Hmm... Warning shots? When you're already locked in the bathroom, shouted a verbal warning and the intruder is intent on opening the door? Honestly, you then Oscar the f@&$ into that door. (PS not going into the de/merits of going into the bathroom in the first place)

Well if you have deadbolts of course. Maybe there is a market for converting bathrooms into safe rooms.

 

[koeksGHT]

No such thing.

Shoot to kill, dump body.

 

[Y'all Qaeda]

Well if you have deadbolts of course. Maybe there is a market for converting bathrooms into safe rooms.

Yeah.. Until they set the house alight.

For some reason a lot of the crims in our country go into peoples homes to do them harm, not take stuff. At least from what I've read in the news papers.

 

[The_Mowgs]

There is no need for warning shots. And shooting into the ceiling?

 

[Albereth]

No warning shots.
I have thought about installing a safe in the bathroom but then rust might become an issue. Bathrooms are fairly humid.

 

[AstroTurf]

Thanks for this.

Recently been thinking long and hard about getting a handgun and scenarios like this are just one small part of the reasoning.

Our bedrooms are already safe rooms

 

[The_Mowgs]

Thanks for this.

Recently been thinking long and hard about getting a handgun and scenarios like this are just one small part of the reasoning.

Our bedrooms are already safe rooms

Put it this way. When you drive somewhere with your vehicle, do you have a spare wheel or that tyre fix foam in the vehicle? If yes, why?

 

[AstroTurf]

Put it this way. When you drive somewhere with your vehicle, do you have a spare wheel or that tyre fix foam in the vehicle? If yes, why?

Basically my train of thought is as follows:

As self defence? Absolute last resort.
As a way to blow off steam a couple of times a month? Awesome

But yes, your analogy makes sense

 

[The_Mowgs]

Theres a saying which I also live by; I would rather have a firearm and not have to use it once than not having a firearm and having to use it once...

 

[Batista]

Pop a cap in his knee, what what Westside mofo.:twisted:

 

[hellfire]

Pop a cap in his knee, what what Westside mofo.:twisted:

Definitely not. The knee is a small, fast-moving target. The chest/abdomen is a large, slower-moving target. 5 in the chest, always.
Also, if you're going to shoot, your life should be in danger and you should be shooting to kill.

 

[AstroTurf]

Definitely not. The knee is a small, fast-moving target. The chest/abdomen is a large, slower-moving target. 5 in the chest, always.
Also, if you're going to shoot, your life should be in danger and you should be shooting to kill.

What he said.

If I absolutely had to shoot someone it would be minimum doubletap to chest.

 

[bgotapen]

The sad fact of the matter is, criminals break in and murder your entire family they get away and the chance of them getting caught is tiny and prosecuted even less...

You shoot someone in legal self defense and the police have proof enough to prosecute you... They are supposed to be the ones that help the victims and even if he killed 20 people marauding in his house with l.e.d lasers for weapons he is still the VICTIM.

Current laws are pretty horrible, the criminal gets more rights than you.