While down at lovemywoods' house last weekend our conversation turned to guns and defense (surprise, surprise ).
We started out talking about longer-range pistol engagements and then lovemywoods posed a scenario that neither of us could definitively answer. So we thought we'd pose it to our INGO brethren.
Here's the scenario:
You, your wife, and 5-year-old son are taking a walk in your neighborhood in the early evening time. Your son is further down the sidewalk from you, and his lead increases to about 80 yards ahead.
A large car rumbles past you and your wife and then slows near your son. Suddenly a woman emerges from the passenger side and grabs your son. She begins to drag him back toward her open car door.
You can attempt to close the distance on foot but she will have him in the car before you can get there. You are armed with your EDC pistol.
Now this is where the questions come in:
Can you legally engage the driver of the vehicle to impede the woman's means of departure? Assume that engaging the woman is impractical due to her proximity to your son.
Does that change if there are multiple vehicle occupants? Does that change if the windows are darkly tinted and you cannot ID any occupants?
Thanks in advance for your input!
We started out talking about longer-range pistol engagements and then lovemywoods posed a scenario that neither of us could definitively answer. So we thought we'd pose it to our INGO brethren.
Here's the scenario:
You, your wife, and 5-year-old son are taking a walk in your neighborhood in the early evening time. Your son is further down the sidewalk from you, and his lead increases to about 80 yards ahead.
A large car rumbles past you and your wife and then slows near your son. Suddenly a woman emerges from the passenger side and grabs your son. She begins to drag him back toward her open car door.
You can attempt to close the distance on foot but she will have him in the car before you can get there. You are armed with your EDC pistol.
Now this is where the questions come in:
Can you legally engage the driver of the vehicle to impede the woman's means of departure? Assume that engaging the woman is impractical due to her proximity to your son.
Does that change if there are multiple vehicle occupants? Does that change if the windows are darkly tinted and you cannot ID any occupants?
Thanks in advance for your input!