Can you legally shoot a home intruder?

Surprisingly information is scarce and not very clear-cut, but there is a general consensus among experts regarding when you can legally “blow someone away” for invading your home–at least in most States.

The legal difficulty herein lies in the fact that the States, not the Federal government, legislates such laws, thereby propagating variance from one State to another.

Colorado’s “Make My Day” Law (appropriately named after Clint Eastwood’s 1983 film, Sudden Impact), allows the lethal use of force against home intruders, as do most States.

Castle Law

Most states appropriately understand the right to defend your home against intruders and have adopted the Castle Law or Defense of Habitation Law, a legal doctrine linked to the Second Amendment and The District of Columbia vs. Heller–the first U.S. Supreme Court decision that directly address a private citizen’s rights to bear arms (the debate had been whether the Second Amendment applied to individual citizens or state-run militias).

The Castle Law basically supports the idea that your home is your “castle” and that you have every right to defend it against harm (including people in your home as well as personal property).

Duty to Retreat Provision

Some states may require a “duty to flee” provision, before engaging in battle with an intruder. This is largely an unpopular law with the general population that  requires that one first attempt to flee prior to the use of lethal force; in other words, it is on the burden of the defense to prove that the use of force was only used as a last resort.

Prima Facie

Prima Facie (sometimes misspelled prima facia), is the Latin expression meaning, “on its first appearance”. The phrase literally translates as “first face”.

It can be reasonably argued in most States that if an intruder breaks into your home, the very act of forced entry is, prima facie, evidence of ill intent.

“If you reasonably think you are in danger,” states Marie Failinger, professor of criminal law at Hamline University, Minnesota, “people have to fear that the person breaking in is going to harm them seriously or kill them”.

Botched Home Invasion Defense

The sticky legal issue? Accidental intrusion. Your neighbor with Alzheimer’s enters the wrong home (it’s happened) on a night when you forgot to lock your front door. In any State, be prepared to show forced entry and ill-intent, or be prepared to make your case before a jury instead.

Further, if you catch a burglar or invader as he or she is trying to leave your house or running away, the law is unclear as to how much force–if any–you can legally use.

Use Common Sense and Stay Focused

Adrenaline will always course through your body in such situations–I don’t care if you think you’re Jack Bauer.

Be wise–identify (before shooting) whether the person is a threat or just a a drunken neighbor who mistook your cookie cutter house for theirs. And please don’t point your weapon at the police officer who is responding to your wife’s 911 call while you were retrieving your Mossberg 500 pump-action shotgun.