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Originally Posted by Sefner
I was assuming you are justified in the shooting, thus making it legal. Also innocent until proven guilty. In other words, semantics (oh man that is an awesome pun).
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It is a technicality to be sure but I think that it's more than semantics. I'm not entirely sure how it breaks down legally and it may be different from one state to another. As far as I know, it is still technically a crime to shoot someone, even when it justified, except that the justification essentially "nullifies" the crime. It's not that you didn't commit the crime or break the law, you did. The difference is that you don't pay the penalty for the crime if you have sufficient justification.
Essentially, there is a second law that says that it's OK to break the first law in certain circumstances. Sort of, more or less.