Question about handling a gun

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JeffSayers wrote:

I'm glad you brought this up T Vance. I have heard hearsay that someone in an urban area was brought up on charges of brandishing because someone saw him with his gun INSIDE his own home through a window.

The more practical reason I am curious though is because on two occasions recently I have heard strange sounds in my front yard late at night. At night I am usually not in my jeans and holster so I go out with pistol in hand trying to sort of hide it behind my body so anyone from the street will not see it.

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wow... i live in the city, on a corner, with large windows.... am i going to get in trouble for indecent exposure since i regularly walk around naked? lol

And my husband has done the same thing walking around the yard with his pistol... you have to read the Castle doctrine carefully though, memorize it if necessary.

As far as i have seen there is no law keeping someone from carrying in hand a pistol on their own property...

like others have said, he could have a number of valid reasons for doing so.

-maybe he had some sort of bothersome animal on his property he was trying to kill (ie: my mom shot a possum bc it kept getting into the garage, and kept falling into and getting trapped in the window well, and after about a week of this she saw it scurrying in the yard again by the garage, and she caught it and shot it)

-maybe he was going to target shoot?

-maybe it wasn't his gun, maybe someone dropped it on to his property and he picked it up? living in the city, I have had drugs/guns/contraband dropped on my property while people were running from police and trying to hide stuff..I'm smart enough not to touch it and let the police handle it though.

-maybe he hit an animal driving down the road and it survived/injured and he was looking for it to kill it so it wouldn't suffer? (something that has happened to me before, and my friends made me stop so they could find the deer and kill it bc it was definitely badly injured)

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stephgrinage23 wrote:

wow... i live in the city, on a corner, with large windows.... am i going to get in trouble for indecent exposure since i regularly walk around naked? lol

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I couldn't read past this.:shock: Aaaah where was it that you lived? Just a general area will do.:lol:

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Venator wrote:

stephgrinage23 wrote:

wow... i live in the city, on a corner, with large windows.... am i going to get in trouble for indecent exposure since i regularly walk around naked? lol

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I couldn't read past this.:shock: Aaaah where was it that you lived? Just a general area will do.:lol:

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haha!

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I suspect that if many on this board were to walk around naked in front of their windows that they would be arrestedas a health hazard. Making everyone throw up from the sight. :what:

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I call it a deterrent .... I am sure many of you have heard Bill Engvall on the topic of how his father checked out suspicious noises.... a baseball bat and his boxers.... and how the gap in the boxers was the factor that struck fear into the heart of the criminal!!

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PT111 wrote:

I suspect that if many on this board were to walk around naked in front of their windows that they would be arrestedas a health hazard. Making everyone throw up from the sight. :what:

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You been peekin'?

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Hmmm... I get deer on my property sometimes. They're fun to look at it, but they drive my dogs ape@#$% and I can't let them outside while the deer are in my yard because I don't know what would happen.

Last October I was in my backyard doing some work when a big buck walked up on me. I don't hunt anymore... so that thought didn't cross my mind. What did cross my mind, however, is what would happen if the damn thing charged at me... or if my dogs were in the yard. I'm pretty sure my dogs would go after it... I don't know how it would've responded.

So here's a question: Shooting a deer that's going after me is self defense. But what if it goes after my dog(s)? From what I recall, discharging a firearm during the protection of property is not considered justified... and dogs, unfortunately, are considered property. But I suppose there's always a loophole. For instance, there is no law that says I couldn't attempt to save my dog(s), and if the deer turned on me, it becomes a self defense issue.

Don't get me wrong... I'm NOT out to harm animals. Like I said... I gave up hunting years ago. As long as I can buy or grow my own food, I don't believe I need to kill it. But if these fella's come back, I'd like to know what my legal options are.

PS... I'm sure the neighbors would love me if something were to happen. I can imagine all the chatter now... I'd be the crazy man on the block who hunts deer in his own yard.

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Veritas wrote:

From what I recall, discharging a firearm during the protection of property is not considered justified... and dogs, unfortunately, are considered property.

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INAL, but I recall hearing, years ago, that if wildlife is on your property and is doing, or about to do damage to your property, you have every right to use lethal force to stop said wildlife.

This was in reference to an instance in the UP which was not in or near any city limits. Discharging a firearm within city limits may be a different matter even when wildlife is involved. I don't know.

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RubberArm wrote:

Veritas wrote:

From what I recall, discharging a firearm during the protection of property is not considered justified... and dogs, unfortunately, are considered property.

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INAL, but I recall hearing, years ago, that if wildlife is on your property and is doing, or about to do damage to your property, you have every right to use lethal force to stop said wildlife.

This was in reference to an instance in the UP which was not in or near any city limits. Discharging a firearm within city limits may be a different matter even when wildlife is involved. I don't know.

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I'm pretty sure it is regulated on the local level. Maybe I should check with City Hall.

But if comes down to self defense, I'm not sure the city can have much to say about it. Can they?

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You're going to have a hard time convincing anyone that a deer attacked you let alone your dog.

Shooting a deer out of season is against the law.

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Leader wrote:

You're going to have a hard time convincing anyone that a deer attacked you let alone your dog.

Shooting a deer out of season is against the law.

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The proof is in the pudding!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59AEqNPpYzY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFIIRD_6LtI

and finally a dog getting attack by a deer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHl8xpveOsQ

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It might happen just like on South Park, "It's comin' right for us!" Boom!

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SQLtables wrote:

True. To take it a bit further, IMO, I don't think there is anything legally wrong with walking down the sidewalk with a gun in hand, as long as you aren't brandishing (waving around, threatening, etc).

Would I do it? Probably not.
Would I feel comfortable with a stranger walking this way? Probably not. Do I think it's brandishing? No.

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Depends on the local brandishing lawwording, I'd expect.

And, to take it a bit further still, if anyone really wanted to start walking down a sidewalk with a gun in hand, it would generate much, much motivation for the governing entitities to change the brandishing definition to include that behavior.

Me, I would supportenactment ofalmost anylocal law that prohibits walking down the sidewalk with a handgun in hand (obviously excepting a self-defense event). There's no good that comes of that stuff. I don't want to live in a state where people are walking around with guns in their hands. That's nonsensical.

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Leader wrote:

You're going to have a hard time convincing anyone that a deer attacked you let alone your dog.

Shooting a deer out of season is against the law.

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I wouldn't be trying to "convince" anyone that it happened unless it actually did. I'm not out to kill anything just because.

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HankT wrote:

SQLtables wrote:

True. To take it a bit further, IMO, I don't think there is anything legally wrong with walking down the sidewalk with a gun in hand, as long as you aren't brandishing (waving around, threatening, etc).

Would I do it? Probably not.
Would I feel comfortable with a stranger walking this way? Probably not. Do I think it's brandishing? No.

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Depends on the local brandishing law wording, I'd expect.

And, to take it a bit further still, if anyone really wanted to start walking down a sidewalk with a gun in hand, it would generate much, much motivation for the governing entitities to change the brandishing definition to include that behavior.

Me, I would support enactment of almost any local law that prohibits walking down the sidewalk with a handgun in hand (obviously excepting a self-defense event).  There's no good that comes of that stuff.  I don't want to live in a state where people are walking around with guns in their hands. That's nonsensical.

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I am somewhat in agreement. As for supporting a local law, I guess I'd have to see exactly how it was worded before I could make a decision.

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Well - if the gentleman didn't have a holster? Isn't carrying muzzle down an acceptable means of carrying the firearm? Maybe it's me being raised in the country, but that really wasn't all too uncommon to see growing up. To be honest, we used holster to protect the weapon rather than to wear it.

Until my wife develops the same desire to smell Hoppes, I am urged to clean my firearms on my back screened in porch. My neighborhood is densely populated, I can say hey and carry on a conversation from my screened in porch with three neighbors. All of whom have seen me cleaning firearms on my porch many times.

In fact, I'd invite a citation for doing either, cleaning my firearms on my porch and/or carrying a sidearm, in my hand, muzzle down on my property. I'd be curious to see how far that actually goes.