“CASTLE” DEFENSE: WHAT CAN–MAY–SHOULD–MUST YOU DO

A concise, well put together discussion of the use of deadly force against home invaders and the castle doctrine.  Go to modernserviceweapons.com for the entire article:

Those who “sleep peaceably” in their bed must on occasion (and really short notice) rise to become “rough men ready to do violence” in defense of their castle.  (Hat tip to George Orwell).  Home invasion is perhaps the most frightening and dangerous of all violent crimes (it is committed out of public sight usually without fixed time/escape constraints and innocent occupants, often women and children, are rarely able to flee).  It is becoming somewhat commonplace during daylight hours and at night in both urban and rural neighborhoods.  Examples include two of the most horrific in memory, from Florida, (here) and (video here), one from Connecticut (here), one from Maine, an old one (here), and recent ones which ended in the death of  a home invader (here) and (here), other recent ones, also very ugly, (here) and (here), and a routinely reported compilation of many in California (here).  Finally, who can forget the single home invader who, for no apparent reason, brutally beat a New Jersey mother (video here) in front of her infant child? The spine chilling, heartbreaking details of these incidents provide good reality based scenarios for family drills training.

A home invasion commonly involves multiple malefactors who either didn’t anticipate the presence of occupant(s) when committing a residential burglary, or simply don’t care if the premises are occupied, because they have included in their criminal repertoire threatening deadly force or doing actual bodily harm, regardless of victim acquiescence.  Home invaders often have violent criminal pasts, impersonate law enforcement, and carry weapons.   Even if they enter unarmed, they easily find edged and impact weapons and other items (see above photo), which they can use to disable or restrain occupants or inflict lethal injury or great bodily harm.  (Spoiler: Restraint of or forcing occupants into another room against their will likely constitutes an independent crime of false imprisonment, kidnapping, or other felony to which deadly force is ordinarily the indicated and lawful response).

 Read more here at modernserviceweapons.com