EM87
Regular Member
imported post
I'm reading a thread on another forum about the motorcycle incident we're discussing here:
http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum30/42455.html
Someone said that if there was not a marked car behind the guy (no knowledge that he was LE) and if the guy had shot the officer (assuming he had a carry permit and got a shot off) that the guy would go to federal prison for shooting an officer. I disagreed with his point in saying:
"That is not necessarily true.
If this had happened to me (in Michigan) and I'd shot the officer before he identified himself, it would be a justified shooting. Aggressive man with unknown identity and gun drawn = a justified shoot. Especially since this was caught on tape, there's no way that the story could be skewed in court. It doesn't matter if he was an officer or not; to you he was a lethal threat, which you can legally defend yourself against in my state.
And what's even better is that Michigan has the Castle Doctrine and the Stand Your Ground laws, which means that if you are somewhere you can legally be, you have no obligation to flee and can defend yourself where you stand."
The part I left out was the "if you're not committing a crime" part. How does speeding and/or reckless driving factor into the situation? Does it count as a crime, which would make the shooting not justifiable? It seems stupid that it wouldn't, but I have to ask.
I'm reading a thread on another forum about the motorcycle incident we're discussing here:
http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum30/42455.html
Someone said that if there was not a marked car behind the guy (no knowledge that he was LE) and if the guy had shot the officer (assuming he had a carry permit and got a shot off) that the guy would go to federal prison for shooting an officer. I disagreed with his point in saying:
"That is not necessarily true.
If this had happened to me (in Michigan) and I'd shot the officer before he identified himself, it would be a justified shooting. Aggressive man with unknown identity and gun drawn = a justified shoot. Especially since this was caught on tape, there's no way that the story could be skewed in court. It doesn't matter if he was an officer or not; to you he was a lethal threat, which you can legally defend yourself against in my state.
And what's even better is that Michigan has the Castle Doctrine and the Stand Your Ground laws, which means that if you are somewhere you can legally be, you have no obligation to flee and can defend yourself where you stand."
The part I left out was the "if you're not committing a crime" part. How does speeding and/or reckless driving factor into the situation? Does it count as a crime, which would make the shooting not justifiable? It seems stupid that it wouldn't, but I have to ask.