You may not be aware of one condition Rule #1 of CCL. You are only allowed to defend yourself or your family, nobody else.
The reasoning is that if you happen upon a situation they don’t want you shooting a cop.
You make a good point, but I can’t imagine anyone with a CCL
and carrying, standing by to watch a shooting drive-by firing at innocent citizens because they are not related. You know what I mean?
Btw, in Oklahoma a gun is loaded if the clip is in, but in Texas a gun is loaded when in the chamber. Does that still hold?
Depends on the state. In Pennsylvania you have the same right to use force to defend a third party as you would if you were the one attacked.
What they drummed into us in CCW class, though, is that we had better be DAMN sure that we knew who the good guy and who the bad guy was in any situation where we intervened. If we shot an undercover cop, we were screwed.
In most cases, though, that's clear enough. If there's a guy holding a knife to a woman's throat, he gets a bullet.
Think twice about sticking your neck out for a stranger. It’s sad to say, but is your life, your home, your family’s wealth and well being worthy of the person you are helping? Because entering into a situation bringing your gun can quickly cost you all of that, and the person you help may see you as the bad guy simply because you are have a gun. A stranger may end up being the biggest ingrate on the planet and care less what you have done and risked for them, and may well end up testifying against you.
My advice is to leave others to the police. They made their decision by being unarmed. Call 911 for them, and be a good witness, but don’t play hero for a stranger. Look what happened to Zimmerman. He was just trying to protect his neighbors. He should have stayed in his vehicle and on the phone. Where are all his neighbors now? Probably marching and wearing hoodies.
In Texas we can defend anyone whose life is being threatened,(except, of course, a criminal), to stop a forcible rape, or even to defend our property under certain conditions, one being if the crime is being committed at night, and under conditions that the property cannot be expected to ever be recovered any other way(this could be a problem area, catch someone ripping you off in broad daylight, unless they have forced their way into your home, probably ought to not shoot them.)On the other hand if someone is trying to steal your car in the middle of the night, you can defend your property.This is good provision in our law in that at night you cannot see if a thief is armed, and you don’t have to wait until you are harmed to respond.