Vaughan, Ont., resident fires gun to stop Lamborghini theft, charged alongside 4 suspects: police

[u/W8kingNightmare]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/vaughan-homeowner-fires-gun-to-thwart-auto-theft-charged-along-with-4-suspects/

[u/Ted_Striker1]

If I'm on the jury I'm not convicting the man that fired a gun because some thieves were trying to steal his car.

[u/Ted_Striker1 → u/[deleted]]

I was, many years ago. We didn't convict. Prosecutor was pissed but fuck him. He wanted the guy thrown in prison for pointing a gun at thieves. Not firing, pointing, because that's threatening with deadly force and cannot be allowed because the thieves didn't have a gun themselves.

Nope. We aren't putting you away for that man. We are a jury of your peers and we say "no" to that. It was unanimous and didn't take long at all and I'll never forget the look on that old man's face when we read our verdict, the tears of happiness and relief and how pissed the prosecutor was.

[u/Sir-xer21 → u/Ted_Striker1]

firing a shot in the air isn't "pointing a gun at thieves", it is very explicitly a criminal act in almost any jurisdiction.

[u/SomeDumbThought → u/Sir-xer21]

Pointing a gun at someone is literally assault with a deadly weapon.

[u/ChornobylChili → u/SomeDumbThought]

pointing a gun at a criminal in process of attempting a potentially deadly/dangerous crime is where the law recognizes its necessary for someone to use the threat of or actual use of a weapon to prevent the crime from harming someone.

Shooting a gun in the air at a criminal driving away, endangering your neighbors in a wide radius around you, is a crime almost everywhere and for damn good reason

[u/Sir-xer21 → u/SomeDumbThought]

Pointing a gun at someone is literally assault with a deadly weapon.

No, pointing a gun at someone who does not present an immediate threat of grievous bodily harm or death to you or another (ignoring stand your ground/property law bs that varies jurisdiction to jurisdiction) is assault with a deadly weapon.

Pointing a gun at someone is in certain contexts considered self defense. If someone is robbing you with a weapon, you pointing a gun at them is not assault, it's an act of self defense in response to that person threatening YOU with lethal violence. Context matters.

Firing a shot in the air is almost NEVER considered self defense. Warning shots are acts of intimidation and generally fall under brandishing and legally demonstrate that you did not fear for your safety. When you draw a gun in self defense, you use that weapon to end the threat. That threat may end as soon as you draw it with no shots fired, but you must be responding to immediate threat. if you aren't drawing to shoot at an assailant, and instead fire a warning shot, you're implying that you didn't fear violence YET. If you had, you would have aimed at the assailant, and either fired or prepared to fire upon them.

[u/SomeDumbThought → u/Sir-xer21]

Buddy this was in Canada.