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Old September 16, 2010, 06:23 PM   #79
OldMarksman
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Join Date: June 8, 2008
Posts: 4,022
Quote:
In the situation you describe, a gun isnt even a solution.
Correct. If one were to fire it and hit the driver, it would only put the allegedly offending car out of control; the chance of hitting an innocent third party (who may also be driving an automobile) is completely unacceptable.

If one were to simply point it, the outcome is unpredictable. There are several possibilities:
  • The dudes are deterred and back off and disappear;
  • The passenger pulls and shoots; or
  • A cellphone call to 911 brings the gendarmes, who find the gun, compare it with the accusers' description, and start a criminal investigation that is likely to lead to prosecution.

I have difficulty imagining any defense of justification attempt more likely to fail. Take a traffic dispute and add a shooting by one driver at the occupants of another car; the defendant's only "evidence" that he believed he was in imminent danger is his word that he was thought the other driver was attempting to force him into oncoming traffic; the testimony of the people in the other car contradicts the testimony of the defendant; and the defendant puts together a story, subject to rigorous cross examination, that using the gun on a crowded roadway was somehow immediately necessary and that it somehow constituted a likely way out of his predicament. Not likely.

I would be somewhat surprised if the defendant even got a favorable jury instruction allowing the jurors to consider self defense.
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