I'm licensed, wife not; can she defend our home?
- Thread starter Irl
- Start date
Quiet Observer
Member
Your license pertains to carrying outside the home. One does not need a license inside the home. Massachusetts is also a Castle Doctrine state. The state does not expect your wife to allow herself to be robbed, raped, and murdered in her own home just because she has no license to carry outside the home.
“Section 8A: Killing or injuring a person unlawfully in a dwelling; defense
Section 8A. In the prosecution of a person who is an occupant of a dwelling charged with killing or injuring one who was unlawfully in said dwelling, it shall be a defense that the occupant was in his dwelling at the time of the offense and that he acted in the reasonable belief that the person unlawfully in said dwelling was about to inflict great bodily injury or death upon said occupant or upon another person lawfully in said dwelling, and that said occupant used reasonable means to defend himself or such other person lawfully in said dwelling. There shall be no duty on said occupant to retreat from such person unlawfully in said dwelling”.
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleII/Chapter278/Section8A
“Section 8A: Killing or injuring a person unlawfully in a dwelling; defense
Section 8A. In the prosecution of a person who is an occupant of a dwelling charged with killing or injuring one who was unlawfully in said dwelling, it shall be a defense that the occupant was in his dwelling at the time of the offense and that he acted in the reasonable belief that the person unlawfully in said dwelling was about to inflict great bodily injury or death upon said occupant or upon another person lawfully in said dwelling, and that said occupant used reasonable means to defend himself or such other person lawfully in said dwelling. There shall be no duty on said occupant to retreat from such person unlawfully in said dwelling”.
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleII/Chapter278/Section8A
niceshootintex
New member
MA is a Castle Doctrine state and your wife needs no permitting to grab a legally owned firearm with the residence to stop an attacker or intruder from committing great bodily harm in defense of herself or other inhabitants. You are not allowed to shoot a person breaking into your vehicle in the driveway, your detached garage, shed, or other area outside of your homes interior. That is a big no no. Call the police in either case but only deal justice if threatened by a perp that is inside your home. Shooting them anywhere outside the home puts you in legal jeopardy with the law.
The Place To Be
The Place To Be
niceshootintex
New member
Easy day. Help your spouse to get hers too.
Mine never thought about it and now she's never without her EDC. Great shooter too. Hmmmmm, I should have given that more thought...
The Place To Be
Mine never thought about it and now she's never without her EDC. Great shooter too. Hmmmmm, I should have given that more thought...
The Place To Be
Frisco85132
New member
Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 278, Section 8(a): In the prosecution of a person who is an occupant of a dwelling charged with killing or injuring one who was unlawfully in said dwelling, it shall be a defense that the occupant was in his dwelling at the time of the offense and that he acted in the reasonable belief that the person unlawfully in said dwelling was about to inflict great bodily injury or death upon said occupant or upon another person lawfully in said dwelling, and that said occupant used reasonable means to defend himself or such other person lawfully in said dwelling. There shall be no duty on said occupant to retreat from such person unlawfully in said dwelling.
This is the clarified Massachusettes law that covers a duty to retreat, which has been removed. In essence, no, there is no longer a duty to retreat when one is is reasonable fear of "death or grave bodily harm". This isn't taken to mean that one can just smoke someone for being in the house, but one must be able to articulate why a reasonable person, knowing what you knew at the time, would have acted in the same manner.
The nuts and bolts are this: If you are in immediate and otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm, then you (or your spouse) has the right to use force, up to and including lethal force, to stop that threat especially inside your own home.
As long as the firearm used defensively is legally owned by you or your spouse, then there is no legal issue in Mass that I could find. Even if there was, an attorney can argue "competing harms" insofar as it is unreasonable to NOT use an available firearm owned by a spouse in a situation where a lethal threat is faced. The "greater harm" is death or grave bodily harm caused by the presence of a violent attacker than grabbing a firearm that she may not be permitted to carry outside the home.
So, the reality is, in short, inside your home...she's good as long as the shoot is righteous otherwise.
"That man broke through my door, he appeared to be armed with a gun/knife/greater size and strength and he said he was going to rape/kill me. The gun/knife is laying on the floor by his right hand. I was forced to fire to stop him. I want to give you my full cooperation, but I am really shaken up right now (and you/she will be), so I want to wait until my attorney is here before I make any more statements".
Do NOT go with "I am having chest pains" or any other nonsense such as that. A simple statement of "I am really shaken up" is HONEST, and understandable. Do NOT get into specifics of how many rounds you/she may have fired...this can get you into a trick bag if you believe you only fired twice, but it turns out in the adrenaline dump that you fired a whole magazine/cylinder full into the attacker.
"I am not sure how many rounds I fired, I stopped firing when he stopped his attack".
Be safe.
This is the clarified Massachusettes law that covers a duty to retreat, which has been removed. In essence, no, there is no longer a duty to retreat when one is is reasonable fear of "death or grave bodily harm". This isn't taken to mean that one can just smoke someone for being in the house, but one must be able to articulate why a reasonable person, knowing what you knew at the time, would have acted in the same manner.
The nuts and bolts are this: If you are in immediate and otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm, then you (or your spouse) has the right to use force, up to and including lethal force, to stop that threat especially inside your own home.
As long as the firearm used defensively is legally owned by you or your spouse, then there is no legal issue in Mass that I could find. Even if there was, an attorney can argue "competing harms" insofar as it is unreasonable to NOT use an available firearm owned by a spouse in a situation where a lethal threat is faced. The "greater harm" is death or grave bodily harm caused by the presence of a violent attacker than grabbing a firearm that she may not be permitted to carry outside the home.
So, the reality is, in short, inside your home...she's good as long as the shoot is righteous otherwise.
"That man broke through my door, he appeared to be armed with a gun/knife/greater size and strength and he said he was going to rape/kill me. The gun/knife is laying on the floor by his right hand. I was forced to fire to stop him. I want to give you my full cooperation, but I am really shaken up right now (and you/she will be), so I want to wait until my attorney is here before I make any more statements".
Do NOT go with "I am having chest pains" or any other nonsense such as that. A simple statement of "I am really shaken up" is HONEST, and understandable. Do NOT get into specifics of how many rounds you/she may have fired...this can get you into a trick bag if you believe you only fired twice, but it turns out in the adrenaline dump that you fired a whole magazine/cylinder full into the attacker.
"I am not sure how many rounds I fired, I stopped firing when he stopped his attack".
Be safe.
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