What's wrong with yelling out "freeze, i have a gun"? No, it's just shoot first and ask questions later? Sorry, I find that extremely odd, value human life too much to take it away so easily. I feel like actually shooting a burglar should be a last ditch effort if and only if they display violent behavior after being confronted, common sense says that most would probably just run and if they steal something then so be it. I don't own any valuables that are worth killing someone over. And even though I probably would confront the burglar because I want to diffuse the situation, the smartest thing would probably be to just barricade yourself and your family and alert the police.
Like I said, there are a million options and choices that one could make in that situation and I don't see any reason that someone should jump right to the most violent one right off the bat. And even if you're within your rights and protected by the law in most states, it doesn't mean there won't be consequences, especially if it ends up that you used a disproportionate response.
Well first jab "most people" won't BE breaking into a house in the middle of the night,I wouldn't draw down on someone who wasn't menacing and I have had occasion to warn trespassers while I was armed that I was armed ,but that person was outside and became verbally aggressive because I had first blinded him with the bright lights of my vehicle . I let him hear the sound of me chambering a shell and told him to get his hands in sight and keep them there . He had reached towards his back pocket.
However HAD he been inside and demonstrated ill intent BY being there I wouldn't give him a chance to respond the way I'd hope ,in a dark house without the KNOWLEDGE that an intruder wasn't armed ,it is a violent act to break into a sleeping house,if you prefer to wait for a second act that's YOUR prerogative ,but you have no right deciding for another how they proceed from that point nor do I think your descriptions of their character the way you did as being maladjusted is objective in fact I think it drips with subjective judgments and attitudes that are not arrived at with the same risk as the person you are describing.
Your statement" I have a gun" can just as easily be answered with a shot ,to warn at that moment could and I would submit in more than a few instances has been answered exactly that way ,one of the first rules of gun safety is don't pull a gun unless you intend to shoot,once a perp knows you are armed and you don't know HE ISN'T you've given advantage away ,IMO an imprudent act .
Again we are not talking about average man on the street here ,this person has broken the security you've already supplied to keep them away from your property and family ,he's surrendered his benefit of the doubt by that action.if YOU want to give him 200 chances g'head ,but pull off with all this judgement,not your life to sit in judgement over ,not your life in peril, really nunya ,nunhya business.
AND OBTW don't come at me with another judgement that you value human life more than me or this hypothetical homeowner, I have a hierarchy when it comes to that and I trust my fellow man to make his own decision when he thinks the human life or those he would likely rank the highest need protection in split seconds when the wrong decision can cost everything ,he had his chance to walk on by and leave that sleeping house alone, with me he's out of chances,but still I wouldn't shoot to kill,I'd shoot to cease movement,if that meant emptying the gun ,it would have to be that way,regrettable? yes ,but not a situation I'd asked for in some "psychotic" moment .
