Understanding the Castle Doctrine

Many of you came to the Deadly Force Law Seminar in January of this year and those that did are more familiar with this concept than maybe some of you that did not attend that seminar.  I just read an article in the June 2010 Combat Handguns magazine.  I know it is only March, but that is what it says.  The article starts on page 81 and is entitled, "Castle Doctrine and Home Defense."  This article is very appropriate considering that I just conducted the Home Defense Seminar on Saturday, March 20th.
 
After reading this short article, I felt it was so important that I needed to write a short piece on the concept of the "Castle Doctrine."  If you live in Indiana, the good news is that our state abides by the Castle Doctrine.  What is the Castle Doctrine and how does it apply to us homeowners when we find someone in our home that does not belong there?
 
 Simply put the Castle Doctrine comes from the expression, "A man's house is his castle."  Indiana state law says that every man, woman, and child has a right to self defense.  Also the Indiana law says that you do not have to retreat from the person that is threatening you.  There are some states that believe that if someone breaks-in to your home, that your very first option should be that you flee your own home so you do not have to confront the person that broke-in.  I do not know about you, but this is so wrong it makes my head hurt.  I cannot imagine myself having to run out of my home so that I would not have to injure someone that broke-in to my home.
 
If you do not want to get shot, do not break-in to my home.  It does not get any simpler than that.  Finding a man in my home that has broken-in will not be good for his health, because I am not taking any chances.  I will error on the side of my safety and my family's safety.  To me that means that the uninvited intruder will be in great peril, as it should be.
 
Enough about me and my home.  Let's get busy on what the Castle Doctrine is and what it means to you.  Indiana law says that you can defend your home, your life, and your family from an intruder if it is reasonable.  In other words, it may not be reasonable if a family member breaks-in to your home and you do not fear for your life.  Or how about this, you and friend are having an argument and he pushes his way through your door because tempers are flaring, but again, you do not truly fear for your life, but you are pissed.  This is not an excuse to shoot your friend.  Just remember that deadly force must be reasonable and should always be a last resort.  You must fear for your life.
 
If you find yourself awakened by a loud noise in the middle of the night and you retrieve your home defense gun and as you look out of your bedroom door, you see the outline of what appears to be a man coming towards you, I think it would be reasonable that you would fear for your safety.  You point your gun at the unknown intruder and you shout out, "STOP, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!", but the intruder keeps coming.  I would believe that the investigating law enforcement agency and the Prosecutor's Office would find it reasonable if you fired shots at this intruder.  However, they would not find it reasonable if you then walked over to the wounded intruder and pumped several shots into his body as he lay on the floor defenseless.
 
Reasonableness is the key.  It is reasonable that you defended yourself inside your home against an intruder that broke-in.  It is not reasonable that you shot him and wounded him and he turned and ran away and you chased him out of your home and down the street and finished him off.  Although I can understand how you might want to do this, IT IS NOT REASONABLE!  The Castle Doctrine and "No duty to retreat" go hand in hand.  Indiana law says that you can stand your ground and you have no duty to retreat from the bad guy.  Even though this is the law, I want to highly recommend that anytime you can avoid a fight, do so.  Deadly force encounters are not always a one way street.  The bad guy may also shoot back at you and no one wants to be in gunfight if they can avoid it.
 
The very best defense is avoidance when that is possible, but as you know, that is not always possible so you have to do what you have to do to survive the encounter.  Law enforcement and the Prosecutor's Office view deadly force encounters in an entirely different light whereby you are defending yourself and your family inside of your own home against an intruder that broke-in.  Also, they are much more likely to side with your split second decision when you find yourself in this type of situation.  No law enforcement officer that I know of working in our area or any prosecuting attorney working in our Prosecutor's Office wants to go after a homeowner legally defending his home and family from a criminal that has broken-in.
 
 
 
 
All deadly force encounters should go something like this if time is available for you to give a warning.  If find yourself in a situation where your attacker has given you enough time to give a warning before you use deadly force, a warning should be issued if it is safe for you to do so.  Learn to shout out LOUDLY, "STOP!" followed up by something like this, "DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!", "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!", "BACK OFF!", "I WILL SHOOT YOU!"  These are just a few examples of what you might say to a bad guy, but I think it is almost always a good idea to start off with. "STOP!"  This is a very clear and concise warning and the bad guy should beware if he does not stop.
 
I have said it many times and I will say it again, I can teach you the mechanics of how to shoot a firearm accurately, but you must know and understand the law and when you can and cannot use deadly force.  I perform a Deadly Force Law Seminar every year in January and I want to encourage you to attend this seminar.  Even if you have attended it in the past, it is crucial that you attend it every year.  This is the third year in a row that I have conducted this seminar and students that have attended all three have told me that they come away with something new each time they attend.  Not because there is new information, but because this topic is so important and so complex that no one gets it down the first time through.  Law enforcement officers are required to go through deadly force law training on an annual basis.  Why would you be any different?
 
Make it a point next year to attend the Deadly Force Law Seminar and the Home Defense Seminar and then get out to the range and take as many shooting classes as you can afford to take, so that you will instill the habits that are necessary to defend your life during a lethal encounter.  I hope this short commentary has been helpful, please let me know if has or has not.