Are you guilty if you murder someone for self-defense? - Help.com

Guilty of what? Murder? No. Murder is defined as taking a life with malice or forethought. A better question could be directed to the grey-area of self defense. Here in Canada you can only (currently) defend yourself to the same degree as your attacker. If someone comes at you with a knife, for example, you can stab him to preserve your own life but you could not, say, shoot him. Likewise if someone comes at you in the night and tries to punch you and you hit back killing your attacker you have just committed manslaughter (murder by accident, without forethought of pre-meditation). This is largely different in the United States where legislation on firearms and personal safety is different and you can shoot a man for much less.

Different policies, same crimes. Who’s right, who’s wrong?

Kwstar so if some 1 came up 2 u and was pointing a gun at u and u had 1 u would not kill them.. somethings wrong if u would not defend your life.

i have a answer to your question:
1. If he points the gun at you, and says ” ILL kill you” then you can stab him. If you dont want to go through the process of this murder business, just stab him in the leg. But, while you do this pull his shooting hand down or, move his shooting hand to the side. But make sure it is a little more before you stab so you dont get shot while moving the gun down.

2. just do what i said above^ and if both of you have a gun, just do the same thing.

Wouldnt that be self-defence?

ciminals are pretty bad now days. I think we need to rewrite the laws a bit in this country.
Some ciminals can kill without a weapon or come pretty close to it. Imagine if they have a weapon.
A ciminal is a ciminal. I actually think a citizen should be able to shoot a ciminal just like a police officer is able to or even more so. See, ciminals usually act even more brazen when there aren’t cops around. So actually a citizen is in more danger than any cop would get in.
I think one should be able to shoot a ciminal who is stealing or robbing you by force( not even by gun) Infact it’s gotten so out of control that weird people question a person should not be able to shoot someone robbing them then running off, usually after assaulting the innocent bystanderd. I say if it was taken by force and point blank then you should be able to shoot them and shoot them good in the back even. The only exception is if it’s not a violent encounter at all, like if it’s just a sneaky thief that doesn’t directly confront or enter the home of an owner.
Also I believe women should be able to shoot when ever they feel.

Thoma wrote:
How do you determine someone’s true intent? I was told that harassment is decided by the interpretation of the individual that’s being harassed. Therefore, does the individual that is doing the attacking forfeit their intent over to the victim’s interpretation. If so, the victim could interpret a mild attack as life threatening and kill.

criminals shoudn’t just go around mildly attacking people.

TheLivingZilch wrote:
Thank you for the replies and I’ve come up with this (based off of my first example): If he points a gun at you and you have hold of a knife, do not stab him in the neck. Instead, stab him in the arm he’s holding the gun with or in the leg.

Although wouldn’t this make him angry and want to shoot you even more? Or what if he pulls the trigger from the pain? Like when you squeeze something to ease a shot’s pain or when giving birth (for women).

2. You threaten him with the knife and he says put the knife away or I’ll shoot. Then what? Also, wouldn’t this be slightly a different situation if you BOTH had guns?

“Unfortunately you probably wouldn’t live in that situation. You don’t die instantly from a stab wound, thus he’d have a few seconds to pull the trigger.”

Very true…goes along with “Although wouldn’t this make him angry and want to shoot you even more?”

I don’t think the criminal, shooter, or gunman is going to be so thoughtful to only shoot you in the leg or something, that’s just a hunch…
The criminal deserves no mercy and should be killed.

they r not gods law they r laws that were made up by criminal politicians and there crony lobbiests, cause they had intent on making the rich richer and the poorer poorer
and they were scared open minded citizens would take the law into there own hands
LAWS WERE MADE FOR CRIMINALS BY CRIMINALS , NEVER FOR VICTIMS

Then your a ******* idiot.

Kwstar wrote:
I believe killing is wrong no matter what. So you would be guilty for taking another’s life. Even if he was threatening to kill you.

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thanks fooud everything i needed and he should have given the person the money instead of killing the person! I mean you can always get money beck bitu not the perdson!

you have to run, if you find your self
trap with him, then if you use your
knife, then it is self defense, but
again you have to prove this or have
evidence, if you don’t the court will
see this as you are tryin to get
away with it

if you have a knife and some one pulls a gun and threatens to shoot you from the moment you can seethegun weither it be a toydoes not matter if it looks real you feel its real you hould act a knife is quicker than a gun within six feet a knife can take out a armed assailant you dont have to wait for the pistol to be pointed at you the threat has to be reali for one know for a factyes a knife can take time to kill if youdo not know where to stab or cutif you can cut the artery in the neck death will take only secons agun shot for thatmatter is not always a instant kill either my point being for any one out there whohas to defend them selfs against a attacker should do sowith dealdy forcebut only if you feel yoir life or anothers s on the line legalcan be dealt withafter we should not have to worry that we will go to jail for defending our own llives if some one attacks me with any thing more dangerious than a tooth pick i would not hesitate to defend myself full completly and lethaly its a matter of your life our theres do what you must but i promise you that jail tpossiable jailtime isnt wrth you losing your life besides the guilt of taking another human life even in self defense will be punishment enough for most

Post a reply I know this post is really old, but I just had to respond. Some of this information and here is horrible, could easily get someone killed. Google “knife gun study” If someone’s coming at you with a knife, and you have a gun, you have every right to shoot and kill them, if they’re within lets say 20 to 30 feet. You never want to aim a pistol at anything you do not intend to destroy.

85% of people that get shot keep moving. It may only be for a few seconds but its though to kill someone. Research Officer Larry Nehasil. He was an officer killed in the line of duty. He was chasing a home invasion suspect when the suspect shot and killed Officer Nehasil. In the few seconds before he died the officer shot and killed the suspect.

this is why you do not point a pistol at anything you do not intend to destroy. Pauline any kind of weapon out without reason to do so is a felony, considered felonious assault. I hope I clarified things a little bit and helped somebody out.