Last year I was working in a field about 40+- yards off a county road with 2 coworkers when an old beat up car drove by, as they drove past they sharted shooting, several shots were fired I didn't count but I could see the puff of smoke come from the passenger side window with each report. There was a house directly accross the road. I had my high-cap 9mm on me at the time, but my thought was that I shouldn't "return fire" untill a round hit me, my equipment or my coworker.

What would ya'll do?

Now I thought of something else after the hmong killed them folks last year. What if I'm hunting and some prick shoots/shoots at me? He MAY think I'm a deer, OR he may be TRYING to kill me. He's on the ridge accross from me, maybe a couple hundred yards, would a reasonable person think it justified to shoot the guy? EVEN IF he thought I was a deer, it was him or me!

Quoted: I was thinking.............................

WTF?

If it happened in TX the instant they pointed the gun at someone with intention to shoot you would be legally justified in shooting back. If you place yourself in the victim's shoes and deadly force is justified, then as a bystander you can also use deadly force to stop the crime from happening.

I say no.

Wow.......

While I was working, well, I'd be seriousley thinking about it after the first round passed by me or my co-workers, that is if the backdrop was clear and you fealt you could stop the threat,but if it was a hail mary or something in that nature, I wouldnt do it.

While hunting?  well I would think about it after I Tried to verbally identify myself as a person and not a deer.  I have been out and about and seen on 2 different occasions people watching me thru thier scopes, that makes me nervous.  Usually a quick point back thier direction thru the scope and a one finger howdy resolves the issue in a hurry.

Quoted: If it happened in TX the instant they pointed the gun at someone with intention to shoot you would be legally justified in shooting back. If you place yourself in the victim's shoes and deadly force is justified, then as a bystander you can also use deadly force to stop the crime from happening.

+1 in FL too!!

If you can ARTICULATE specific facts and circumstances ( which means to "paint a word picture") why you felt that your life or the life of another was in immediate peril, and your actions were done to protect yourself or another from imminent (meaning close in time and space) great bodily harm (an injury likely to cause death, loss of limb, etc) and/or death itself, in most jurisdictions you would most likely be ok.

If you can not put into words specific facts and circumstances that would lead a reasonable person faced with the same situation to feel as you did at the time, and you fire, you will most likely have a problem.

Basically, and I do stress the word BASICALLY, you can use deadly force to prevent/stop deadly force.  So if you killed a hunter who "accidently" shot at you so you shot back, you would most likely face some type of manslaughter or negligent homicide charge.

Talk to your local State's Attorney Office/State Prosecutor and let them tell you what the standard is in your area.

REMEMBER.....  Getting arrested is one thing.....  Getting convicted is a totally different issue.

If someone shoots at you, return fire.

What is the point of not shooting back?  If you get killed, at least you didn't shoot back?

Just know that you are responsible for where your rounds land down range.  If you return fire at a car doing a drive by shooting and you put bullets in a house behind the car, you are responsible for it.

If you are hunting and someone shoots at you, and you return fire and kill them, you may have a hard time proving that person was shooting at you.  If that person is accidentally shooting at you, thinking they see a deer (I can't figure out how a person resembles a deer), then maybe return fire in their direction to let them know you are there?  Do something to stop them from shooting.  If they continue to shoot, then use your discretion on whether you need to shoot them.

Bottom line is, you are going to have to answer for your actions.  Whether you were in the right or wrong.  Are the possible ramifications worth still being alive?

I was considering a similar situation the other day.  Pull into my driveway, my kids and I get out of the car.  A neighbor's dog comes running down the sidewalk growling and barking.  I had my hand on my pistol, ready to pull it out.  The dog had stopped short because my neighbor yelled at it.  Had it reached me or one of my kids and attacked, I may have shot it.  In my mind, the ramifications of discharging my weapon in town and shooting the neighbors dog outwieghs the result of one of my children being scarred for life.  I do not know if it would have attacked if my neighbor wasn't there.  The dog seems to be all bark and no bite...

Well it is hard to make a broad generalization on things like this.  There are other factors at play here.  (like the hunting thing, I would not return fire after one shot, but after two I would, especially if my wife was with me.  Now If I knew they were just mistaken I would shoot into the air to help them figure it out. If I didn't know and they had fired directly at me more than once, its on.)


But here is my rule of thumb.  You never know what some crooked lawyer is going to try to pull, especially if you live in a fucked up place like California.  Better to be in jail than dead.  My rule is that if my family or myself is in danger and the assailant is non-compliant (shooting counts as non-compliant) then somebody is about to have a bad day.   If you only shoot if you have to, then 99.999% of the time you are good.  Of course, there is always that one guy that gets hosed.  But their are no gaurantee's with anything in life.  

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