Tonight on my usual ride home from work I was pondering the question that if someone used their conceled weapon to defend themselves against a vehicler attack, would that be considered a justified use of their weapon?  Here is a possible situation, didn't happen, just something made up.  

Say you are riding your bicycle on the road and a car swerves at you and begins to try and run you off the road and hit you.  If you go off the road chances are you'll be hurt pretty bad.  Do you think pulling and using a weapon would be justified in a similiar situation to above?  Why or why not.  Thanks for the responses.

Probably couldnt be justified. The argument would be that you didnt know the "intent" of the operator of the vehicule (my spelling is bad lol). Most drivers who kill people are charged with negligent homicide. Vehicular assault of the equivelent of beating someone up without the intent to kill them and doesnt warrent the use of deadly force to protect ones self.

If you did kill the driver chances are you would be charged with first degree manslaughter or worse.

Im not a lawyer and I dont claim to have the "right" answer, but this is probably what would happen in my state.

Hopefully you could get some eye witness statements in your favor.  If not, it could be your word against a dead man's, and that has FUBAR written all over it.  

Using a car in a threatening manner like that would probably justify using deadly force just as it would for a police officer.  Who's to say the person's trying to run you off the road and not run you over?  "When in doubt, empty the magazine!"  

Let's just hope your CCW can bust through a windshield [;)]

Technically, at least, the short answer is, yes, you could use a firearm in this instance.  LEO’s do it with some frequency.

The key is that you (like the LEO) [b]must[/b] be able to later convince a grand jury (and maybe a criminal and/or civil jury) that your state’s standards for the use of deadly force were met.

Woe unto you if you can’t do that!!

The issue isn’t really the weapon being used (as long as it’s a credible one – not a chicken feather or voodoo or something like that).  The real issue is your state of mind – generally a fear of imminent death or serious bodily injury.  

And of course it has to be credible fear – you can’t just blow away a little old lady sitting in a wheel chair at a bus stop and claim that you felt threatened by her!!

Intent of the person shot would also be a big issue – I doubt you could get away with shooting someone whose had [b]obviously[/b] simply lost control of their car.

Yes, shoot.

Pedal, Forest, pedal.

THe question is could you have avoided using deadly force? Could you have stopped your bike & turned around or was the guy in the car a hit man, was he trying to run you down? Obviously you can't out run a car on a bike. Deadly force would be justified at that point. If the driver bumped you, say a bunch of college punks were trying to make you wreck, then likely no, especially if all you had to do is stop and let them go on ahead. Now if it were me in that situation, I would probably brandish the weapon to encourage them to move on. If you EVER have to pull/brandish a gun for defense, even if some punk just goes goggle eyed and runs after seeing it. You must call the cops. The first one to the phone is the good guy. You could be tromped by 20 cops if the scared little punk gets to the phone first.

A friend of mine was driving down a rural road when he came upon the following scene.  An ex-husband had forced his ex-wife's car off the road, dragged her out of it, and was pummelling her unmercifully.  My friend pulled over and stopped and got out of his car.  

The ex jumped into his car and started to leave, then turned around and came back like he was going to run them down.  My friend pulled out his pistol and took aim.  The bully stopped the attack and departed in a hurry.

Thousands of times every year cars are proven to be deadly when not properly and responsibly used.  If somebody was trying to kill me with one I'd be inclined to take defensive action.

Fire several warning shots!

I have had it happen.  I went off road.  If you fired and they lost control and hit you anyway, where would that leave you?

Stop (on side of road). Let the bastard drive foraward. Should he turn around, you take out your weapon, keep it in open site.
Warning shots are a nice idea, but how to make sure the driver notices (besides holes in his windows/windshield [;D])? Tires maybe?

The whole reason I thought of this was a few years ago a guy I work with got ran off the road and nearly killed.   This kid was trying to kill him.  My buddy was riding his bike and dipshit kid swerved at him serval times, so my buddy slowed down/stopped, but kid slowed down with him and served at him again.  My buddy got on the grass/sidewald and continued riding.  Dipshit drove over curb and nailed my buddy, but fucked up because he rear ended a truck trying to get back on the road.  Nothing happened to the kid cause he parents were connected to the police/court.  

I was just curious as to what everyones opinions were on defending oneself given a similiar situation.  I've never had anything like that happen to me, but I have had a guy pull off the road and pull big knife on me.  Thanks for you opinions once again.

As for the guy with the knife, just drive away, or back up and shoot out his tires from the comfort of your own vehicle [;D]

About the bike incident, I'm not sure. He could have won in civil court. I assume he was a 'kid' and had no CCW or anything.