http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-wilmette31.html

Sorry, don't know how to make it hot!

Burglar comes back for seconds, gets shot, drives himself to the hospital in stolen BMW.  Home owner/defender may be charged.

Now it's hot

As Elvis would say: ThankyouVerymuch!

Chicago.

[b]"The central issue is that a resident of Wilmette has been burglarized, his family has been traumatized and there is a shooting," he said. "At some point, we will revisit the issue that this person possessed a handgun in violation of the ordinance. Whether or not the individual will be prosecuted depends on the totality of the circumstances."[/b]

Always a possibility when shooting someone.

Except in Texas where you can kill girl scouts in uniform after dark if they dare knock on your door to sell cookies - in the rest of the country you should be in reasonable fear for your life before using deadly force to defend yourself. Personally I wouldn't shoot someone stealing my car out of my driveway but would put someone down in a heartbeat (or less) that reasonably treatened me or mine.

....

Oohh.  Well it was a nice warm and fuzzy ordinance when they passed it.  Now they get to look like idiots if they prosecute.  And you know if they don't prosecute the knuckleheads that rammed the issue through are going to be up in arms.  Darn.  Oh well I guess if you want to be on the Town Council you only get the easy jobs.

"We wouldn't have had a problem if he had used a shotgun"???

Yep. As it is the perp will sue.

Commie Illinois

Illinois blows. I'm sad to say I once lived there.





With unregistered firearms! Ha!

If a Bad Guy were to break in to a LEO's house, can the LOE protect his family??

If yes, Y is that, only LEO's are ALLOWD to protect their loved ones.

It's amazing how VICTIMS have no rights in this country - Just f-ck-ng amazes me!!

THESE ARE THE STORIES THAT MAKE ME THE MOST ANGRY.

Who here would not BLOW the Hell out of some scum bag that broke into their house?

I for one, would HANDLE BUSINESS!

Generally, you are only allowed to use deadly force to respond to deadly force, as Paul has already written.  Thus, when you catch someone stealing your car, get between the car and the escape route, and shout a warning if possible.  If the car starts to move towards you, drill holes in the guy, since driving a car while in commission of an inherently dangerous felony has been conclusively held to be use of a deadly weapon, plus driving it towards you would be a specific intent crime of attempted murder.  There are plenty, PLENTY of case law examples involving LEOs who have done this exact thing, and the fact that you in some way increased your peril by being in front of the car does not mitigate the fact that your life was in imminent danger.

However, you will also note that the homeowner is not being charged with any kind of wrongful shooting, only possession of a type of firearm banned by local ordinance (not even state law).  Why was this a "good shoot"?  Well, I have to go into common law here, because that's what on the bar exam.  I don't know what the specific rules are in Illinois, after all I'm studying for the Missouri bar, but under common law burglary is considered to be one of the few specific-intent "violent felonies" considered inherently dangerous enough to warrent a deadly response.  Rape and arson are two other examples which personally suprised me while studying this earlier today.  If I catch a guy in the act of rape, and its unquestionably the right guy, I can blow his damn head off if he's still in commission of the act when I catch him under common law.  Sometimes common law kicks ass, its the law of the land before all the liberal judges screwed it up and helped make us a nation of victims.

Sometimes studying for the bar exam is actually kinda cool.

EDIT:  Oh yeah, and this homeowner will probably be able to plead out, if he's in violation of a local ordinance its probably an infraction, I bet the gun gets confiscated and he pays a hefty fine at worst.  Next time if handguns are banned in your town, either move to a real American town and not some pussy communist town, or get a damn SAR-1 or a Remington 1100 to shoot at burglarizing assholes with.  See how they like THAT!

[rolleyes]

I happened to be flipping thru the channels last night and caught this story on WGN. (Dunno why we get a Chicago station in KS, tho...)

The ordinance in his city is against handguns. If they do prosecute (enforce?) the ordinance, it's between a $50 and $750 fine. Not like he's gonna go to prison for breaking the handgun ordinance.

Now, if they decide to press charges because he actually shot the guy... that's a different matter. As of last night, he was not in custody, only questioned and returned home.

Apparently, the same guy broke into their home a day or so earlier, and stole their vehicle as well (The news crew made it seem like he stole the same families vehicle as he was robbing).

The next time he came back, the homeowner shot him, and the burglar used the stolen vehicle to drive himself to the hospital.

They made it seem like he was shot INSIDE the house, and broke thru the window to escape.

I'd say this was a pretty good job, myself. The homeowner should be proud. The only thing he did wrong was use a handgun instead of a shotgun or rifle (because of the ordinance).