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Old September 25, 2005, 02:35 AM   #21
Garand Illusion
Senior Member
 
Join Date: March 4, 2005
Location: Colorado
Posts: 1,278
Quote:
You don't have authority to use deadly force to protect someone from taking your neighbors car in their driveway, that goes for all 50 states.
I mostly agree with this post, but it's not quite this simple.

In Colorado, you do not have the right to use deadly force to protect property, but you do have the right to use physical force. And you always have the right to confront a criminal.

i.e. ...

Guy breaking into my neighbors car. If I think I can take him, I'm perfectly within my rights to tackle his butt to the ground and hold him in a headlock until the police arrive. Tackling somebody and holding them in a headlock is physical force, not deadly force. Police give me a slap on the back and take the guy in.

If the guy is too big to tackle, I have every right to come up near him and yell at him that I'm calling the cops. In this latter situation ... I have been told by a lawyer that if I am carrying a weapon, it would be considered prudent and NOT brandishing to have that weapon unholstered. The lawyer even said I could point it at the BG, even though I have no right to fire, though I doubt I'd do that myself.

If the BG responds to me with agressive force that I believe to be life endangering I have as much right to fire as if he had attacked me out of the blue.

I doubt I would confront someone breaking into a car unless I seriously thought I could hold them in place physically, but I would consider doing something like blocking the car in with mine, etc. And the fact that I have a weapon concealed on my person just gives me an option the BG doesn't know about.
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