Date:         Wed, 6 Mar 1996 01:06:17 -0600
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jgladu@bcm.tmc.edu (John Gladu)
Subject:      Re: Zoning Police

Tue, 5 Mar 1996 17:28:33 -0800 (PST), Craig Standley
<cstand@u.washington.edu> wrote:

>As far as shooting someone that enters your yard to tow your car, if you
>can prove that they posed a threat to your life( which I doubt you could),
>then you'd be justified, otherwise you'd be in jail.

Not between dusk and dawn in Texas.  State law provides for using deadly
force to protect PROPERTY, at night, if the perpetrators are caught in the
act.  And the new right-to-carry law took effect recently.

You caught someone messing with your stuff?
Is it night-time?
Kill them.

There has been some attention brought upon this by two recent
"applications" of the law:

One was a car owner who was beeped by his auto security system (soon after
a previous incident left his car damaged). He went out to the apartment
parking lot and pumped around 30 rounds into the perp next to his car AND
the two companions sitting in the getaway vehicle. He was no-billed by a
grand jury because the incident met all of the conditions of the law.

The other was a car owner who had to go back for his gun and travel
somewhere in order catch the alleged perpetrators, then blowing them away.
He was indicted because he didn't shoot immediately upon catching them in
the act. (He didn't use as many bullets though...)

I don't know if there's a wrecker-driver/repo man exclusion clause in the
statute permitting the use of deadly force; but that was another case...
(repo-wrecker driver shot by the alleged deadbeat) No-billed by the grand
jury but hit with a wrongful death suit by the wife of the deceased.

These are interesting times in an interesting state...
(In the ancient Chinese curse sense of "interesting".)

bcnu - Grungy            Houston, TX
jgladu@bcm.tmc.edu
'61 dddPanel Walkthru  (The BozoBus)
'68 & '69 Bugs (Frunobulax & Bertha)
'89 Vanagon GL
'90 Vanagon GL