A lot of people, me included, would like to do serious bodily harm to anyone caught stealing from us.

The reality of it is that you better make sure you can justify taking a life or even wounding someone over property. The law may say it is justified, but once you get charged and get in front of a jury of the 12 brightest citizens they can seat then the whole deal can change in an instant.

By the letter of the law it is legal to shoot someone after the sun sets for criminal mischief. But, I would guess you would be charged and most likely found guilty.

If you do not get charged or even found not guilty, then you have the civil liability issues to deal with and that could get ugly as well.

It seems our laws have moved to protect the wrong side some of the time. Then when you look at civil law it's even worse.


If you choose to use deadly force, from what I understand, you better be prepared to justify it and/or defend yours actions.