Eighty yard shot, target zone is about six feet wide, and two feet tall, and includes your five year old son. You are armed with a pistol. Your kid is down range. You are in a residential area, where your backstop consists of other houses, yards, and people.
Again, forget the 80 yards. The question is to the legality of engaging the driver, rather than the person grabbing your child. This could happen at just about any distance.
But, wait for it.... wait for it... WHAT IF It was a concerned citizen worried about your son darting into traffic and, seeing nobody around swept him up for his safety with the intent of calling the police?
While down at lovemywoods' house last weekend our conversation turned to guns and defense (surprise, surprise ).
We started out talking about longer-range pistol engagements and then lovemywoods posed a scenario that neither of us could definitively answer. So we thought we'd pose it to our INGO brethren.
Here's the scenario:
You, your wife, and 5-year-old son are taking a walk in your neighborhood in the early evening time. Your son is further down the sidewalk from you, and his lead increases to about 80 yards ahead.
A large car rumbles past you and your wife and then slows near your son. Suddenly a woman emerges from the passenger side and grabs your son. She begins to drag him back toward her open car door.
You can attempt to close the distance on foot but she will have him in the car before you can get there. You are armed with your EDC pistol.
Now this is where the questions come in:
Can you legally engage the driver of the vehicle to impede the woman's means of departure? Assume that engaging the woman is impractical due to her proximity to your son.
Does that change if there are multiple vehicle occupants? Does that change if the windows are darkly tinted and you cannot ID any occupants?
Thanks in advance for your input!
Know how I can tell you don't yet have a 5-year-old?
There are some questions about this scenario that I have. Is this scenario a actual kidnapping or possibly a mistake? If it is a kidnapping, blast away (at anybody in the vehicle) if you can safely do so.
A child that's 80 yards away from their parents along a sidewalk can certainly be mistaken as being alone (if the parents aren't noticed).
Older people are prone to taking in children that the believe are abandoned, while frantic parents report to police that they have been kidnapped (I've seen it). Last thing you want to do is gun down a hard of hearing, poor sighted grandpa, in a Buick, as his wife tries to, in her mind, do the "right" thing.
So before smoking anybody, it would be best to make sure there's no confusion. Better yet, how about keeping the child closer.
This of course depends on the totality of the circumstances.
This of course depends on the totality of the circumstances.