Rep Power: 1093

Sadly, it is. I learned about it in my classes. We just had a huge discussion on this, and no you cannot just shoot someone point blank in your house, unless they are putting you in immediate danger. If they break in, no matter if its your property or not, if they break in to rob your house and see you have a gun and then start running out of the house, if you shoot them, YOU are at fault, and YOU are ******. They come back and sue you for attempted manslaughter, Im afraid you lose. The only thing I can think of that would substitute what happened above is the Castle Doctrine, which gives you the right to use deadly force to any intruder that puts you or innocent people in harm. But that doesnt apply to California, unless they have a similar doctorine, or statue. Those are up to the state though, so Im sure they found some statue that gave them the right. Sure theres small what ifs, and buts, but the bottom line is that you can only do as much as it takes you to get out of the situation. If you start killing people, thats vigilante-type. If they shoot someone in your family, and you kill them, thats revenge, not justice. Im not disagreeing with you thats whats right and wrong, its just what I learned about how the law with that works. It sucks, and I dont think its fair if someone comes into your house that you cant kill them if they dont put you in danger. I dont agree with that.

 
Rep Power: 672

You are right and I probably should have explained myself better. If someone comes into my house, sees that I'm armed and they run away, then of course I will not shoot them. However, if someone comes into my home and I see that they are armed, they are going to die. There are so many senarios and like you said, what if's and but's, and I do understand what you're saying. This is how I figure it: if someone breaks into a home knowing that there are people in the residence, the intruder has got to know that there will be some kind of confrontation. And I will be willing to bet that he is prepared for it, most likely being armed with some kind of weapon. I will be willing to take the risk of being prosecuted and found guilty because of the fact that I used deadly force to protect myself or my family when I felt threatened, whether a jury or judge agrees or not. And I can guarantee you that put in that situation, almost every single one of you will take that risk. Unfortunately, the laws are what they are and that is just a risk that I will have to take. But like I said before, I do agree with you, although our choices may be different.