Man Attacked In His RV

Had his pistol under his pillow. I keep mine in a draw holster beside the mattress. Stole his pistol and beat him. If that was me, I would have shot the intruder. I believe Virginia is a Stand Your Ground State.

There were three intruders not one. The man was sleeping when they broke in.

I'm sure if you had asked this man days before the attack, he would have said "I would have shot the intruder".

Of course, there would have been two more intruders, but a good gun owner should have no problem shooting them all before they could get him.

I am very sorry this happened to this man and his wife. Hopefully he will recover. And hopefully the three men will be identified and caught.

For the rest of us - good reminder that just parking on a street for the night is not necessarily safe - even in a nice neighborhood, people inside the homes won't hear or see what's going on. In a campground or RV park, someone is more likely to notice.

SidecarFlip wrote:
Had his pistol under his pillow. I keep mine in a draw holster beside the mattress. Stole his pistol and beat him. If that was me, I would have shot the intruder. I believe Virginia is a Stand Your Ground State.

He was in Arlington Texas not Arlington Virginia.

Although we do in essence have stand your ground, Virginia doesn't have a specific statute for stand your ground. Someone introduced a bill about 2 or 3 years ago to make a stand your ground law because there isn't one. However, there is four hundred plus years of case law (court decisions) dating back to Colonial times and English common law that allows a person the right of self-defense including deadly force. After criminal defense lawyer Dan Hawes in Northern Virginia pointed out that any stand your ground law that would be passed would wipe out all of the previous case law and English law and replace it with a weaker law that was more restrictive and narrowly defined than what we have now the bill was withdrawn. What we have now is better than anything that they could Cobbled into a new law.

SidecarFlip wrote:
Had his pistol under his pillow. I keep mine in a draw holster beside the mattress. Stole his pistol and beat him. If that was me, I would have shot the intruder. I believe Virginia is a Stand Your Ground State.

One minor note: It was in Arlington, Texas, not Arlington, Virginia. And I'm pretty sure Texas has stand your ground as well as concealed carry, but regardless, they broke into his abode. He had every right to shoot them in pretty much any state.

The intruders didn't "break in" ... the RV side door was unlocked. They just stepped in.

Really "not smart" in my opinion - to be inside your RV sleeping without every door being locked.

Carrying a gun is not an answer. Psychopaths don't care about you gun, as they have ahead of time in their twisted minds thought through how to deal with your gun(s) should you have one.

I sleep with a handgun under my pillow while traveling and when at home. There are usually other guns within reach as well including a .357 agnum and shotgun. I'm usually a light sleeper when camping. And a semi heavy sleeper at home. Being able to wake up and start shooting to defend yourself is going to depend on several things. Some of which are how sleepy you are, how foggy your brain is when you awaken, how quiet the intruders are, if you have a dog with you that can alert you, if your door is locked and they have to use force when entering and if your door is alarmed.

This guy was asleep. We don't know if he was a heavy sleeper, had been drinking, was medicated or if those entering were very quiet or if he did react and he wasn't quick enough before they jumped him. We do know that his door was unlocked giving those intruding easier access.

I hope that if this were to ever happen to me that I would be able to react quickly and take care of the threat. But you don't really ever know ahead of time how things are going to happen. The only thing you can do is be as prepared as you can. When camping alone I would never leave the door unlocked and I will be adding an alarm of some type to to door of my TT.

I stand my ground no matter where I,m at ,

The fastest way to get a thread closed is to start talking about guns. Please keep it civil.

Stand your ground is irrelevant in this case.

Stand your ground only applies when you are out on a public street, in a mall,anywhere you have a legal RIGHT to be. In a non-stand your ground state, you have a DUTY to retreat IF you can do so safely. If you could have retreated, but didn't, then a claim of self-defense will not be allowed by the court.

In a stand your ground state, the duty to retreat is eliminated.

But in no state do you have a duty to retreat from your own home.

And if you are awoken from sleep by people coming in through your door, it's probably impossible to retreat SAFELY, and if you cannot retreat safely, then you are not required to retreat.

pnichols wrote:
The intruders didn't "break in" ... the RV side door was unlocked. They just stepped in.

Really "not smart" in my opinion - to be inside your RV sleeping without every door being locked.

X2. A little common sense goes a long way. We don't live in fantasyland.