Hypothetical Question..What if...

imported post

This is just a hypothetical question that crossed my mind.Lets sayyou carry a weapon into a place where guns are legally prohibited (like a resturant that serves alcohol), and while you're there someone pulls a gun and starts shooting people in a mad rage. You, of course, would draw your weapon and take down the gunner, saving the lives of potentially one person for every round left in his gun. What do you think would happen to you, since now you're caught, red-handed, with a gun where you're not supposed to be?



*Note*: This is just for provoking thought and encouraging discussion. I am in no way suggesting that breaking the law is right or justifiable at ANY time.

imported post

Well being in illegal possession could taint how the DA treats you. Some DA like Mike Nifong might feel the need to make some example of you for political purposes and throw a murder charge. If they felt like it they certainly could charge you with the illegal gun charge.
Here is an odd source but illustrates the latter scenario, well not exactly but as close as I could find on short notice.
http://www.hiphopmusic.com/archives/001929.html

Prosecutor says Proof shooter within law
Shooting was in defense of another according to prosecutor The man who police say shot and killed rapper Proof in a nightclub shootout acted lawfully in defense of another man, the county prosecutor said Tuesday. But Mario Etheridge still will have to face weapons charges in the April 11 incident in which Etheridge's 35-year-old cousin Keith Bender also was killed.
Etheridge's lawyer has said his client fired a gun while trying to defend Bender during the April 11 fight at the CCC, an after-hours club on Detroit's Eight Mile Road... [The prosecutor] said Etheridge shot twice at the ceiling to stop Proof -- who was a member of D12 and Eminem's best friend -- before aiming the gun at him...
...A message seeking comment was left Tuesday for Etheridge's lawyer, Randall Upshaw. Upshaw has maintained that the 32-year-old Proof — who died with a blood alcohol level of 0.32 percent (four times the level considered drunk under Michigan law) — became belligerent during a game of pool. The man he argued with stopped to speak to him on his way out, Upshaw said, and Proof then argued with Bender and later returned with a gun, pistol-whipped Bender and shot him in the face

imported post

I imagine you'll be busted for the illegal gun but cleared of murder because you acted in self-defense. This is the pattern we see in cases like the man in NYC who shot an intruder in his kid's bedroom with an unregistered (aka illegal) pistol a few years ago. IIRC he was put in the same jail as the intruder, and may even have spent more time inside than the intruder, as well, but don't quote me on this. In Britain, they may charge you with assaulting the poor gunman who was just innocently shooting up the patrons of the tavern.

As far as disobeying laws, well, protecting your family is always more important than any law, since it is your duty as a (hu)man, but you have no duty to be in any bar, so I wouldn't expect any lenience.

imported post

I can't speak for NC, but in TN, you are covered. We have a law which says that if you are in a prohibited place and use your gun in lawful self-defense, you cannot be charged with having the gun in a prohibited place.

ProguninTN

imported post

Hmm thats a pretty enlightened law, do you have a code link? Maybe we should work on a similar bill in Virginia.

imported post

http://198.187.128.12/tennessee/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=fs-main.htm&2.0

The law is TN Code Annotated Title 39, Chapter 17, Sec. 1322.

Hope this helps,

ProguninTN.

imported post

[align=justify]Pretty cool law. I'm jealous.[/align][align=justify]
[/align][align=justify]A person shall not be charged with or convicted of a violation under this part if the person possessed, displayed or employed a handgun in justifiable self-defense or in justifiable defense of another during the commission of a crime in which that person or the other person defended was a victim.[/align]



[align=justify][Acts 1994, ch. 943, § 1.][/align]

imported post

Yeah, the law is good. I am jealous of your restaurant carry law. Being required to open carry may be a nuisance, but at least you have some form of restaurant carry. Perhaps new pro-gun laws may be the future for TN and VA ?

ProguninTN

imported post

Of course because of the law you see why we have so many open carriers in Virginia.

imported post

I do suppose the law may have the un-intended result of promoting open carry.

imported post

Hey once in a while the people do what you tell them to do.

imported post

longwatch: Yep.

DreQo: It looks like you may an affirmative defense as we have in TN. That depends on the meaning of the following statute below. http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_14/GS_14-269.html Please See the part labeled (b1).

ProguninTN