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Posted: 6/14/2009 9:48:59 PM EDT
if someone broke in to your house or whatever, and it was legal to shoot them with a pistol, would it be legal with a 40mm bee hive or any other 40mm round?
might be a stupid question but figure i better see what the gurus here say |
| I do not see why not. if it is legal for you to one. it is legal for you to defend yourself with...........within reason though. if you had a legally registered grenade and you used it to defend yourself..............well, there might be repercussions on that one. |
| It has been said before, but for personal defense, don't use class 3 if you have choice. They should be in a vault. A 12 gauge home defense gun is better anyway. You will be sued even if it was a legally justified self defense shoot. You don't want to be explaining why you shot the poor defenseless home invader with a grenade launcher, uzi, silenced pistol, or even some handloaded ammunition that you designed to be 2x as deadly. You will be portrayed as a terrorist or militia member who is more dangerous than the person you shot. The jury in the civil trial will give the home invaders family your house and money. |
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Technically yes, you may defend yourself with whatever you own; however, you need to check your state laws about force. Here in Virginia we have a "reasonable force" law, meaning that if you use excessive force, you can be prosecuted. So, with that said, even shooting 10 .22 rounds or a 12 gauge round out of a Grenade Launcher can be seen as excessive force by an over-zealous district attorney. He doesn't see the fact that its only a shotgun shell. He sees what a grenade launcher does in movies.
As said above, leave the class 3 items locked away and keep a shotgun/pistol for home defense. Jeremy S. |
Nice smiley face, Dan. 
As far as defending ones self using a "class III" or "DD: classified weapon, my feelings are this: The right to use arms in the defense of ones self and ones family is a right that does not specify that you have to confront a knife wielding subject with a knife, nor does it mean you have to use a rock, if the subject has a rock and is about to bash in your head. In LE we call it articulation. If you can articulate the reason you grabbed your DD and used it in exactly the manner in which it was meant to be used, you would have no problem under use of force laws in PA. There is no law I am aware of that states you must use a force of "like kind" when responding to a deadly force incident. An example would be, me as an LEO responding to an incident of a samurai sword wielding suspect. Should I seek out another sword, or would I be justified in using my automatic pistol or AR15 in confronting that threat? Could I use a Remington 700 30-0-6? So... Using logic, an M203 or M79 would not be my first choice as a home defense weapon. They are grenade launchers. I can use adapters to fire 410, 12ga or any other gauge shotshell or slug. I could use a 10/22 adapter, but WHY? My point is... There are MUCH more effective weapons that are used in home defense. Can you use a 40mm or registered 37mm to defend yourself? Yes. The Military, LE and Corrections personnel use them for just that purpose. But... Not many military folks would discharge an M203 inside a building... That's why it's on an M4. A weapon is a weapon, regardless of how "Hollywood" movies portray them. I can defend my home very well with an SBR AR15, or a DD Street sweeper. Articulate simply you were in fear for your life, and grabbed the closest weapon available and defended yourself. (I would assume common sense would apply, in case the closest weapon is a flame thrower...) |
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