[Timpanagos1]

Let’s put it like this.

While I am not fully knowable of such laws in each state, I would, regardless of your state, strongly advise you not to shoot guests who have been invited into your home by you, or another member of the household.

[VeniVidiVici]

While I am not fully knowable of such laws in each state, I would, regardless of your state, strongly advise you not to shoot guests who have been invited into your home by you, or another member of the household.

Sorry, but a stranger in bed with my daughter is going to get a load of buckshot in the ass. What, I'm I going to quiz him 20 questions to find out his intent.

[Rockingham]

Assuming that one does not have an attorney always at one's elbow, an explanation of the legal issues may be helpful. In most states, invitees are considered an exception to the "castle doctrine" that authorizes the residents of a home to use force to defend life or property while in the home without any duty of retreat.

In the facts of the shooting we are discussing, it seems that the supposed invitee of the teen had entered in secret and in knowing disregard of the directives of the teen's mother, who was the homeowner and the adult head of household. For those reasons, and because statutory rape seems to have been intended or carried out, the claimed invitee would probably not be afforded protection as an exception to the "castle doctrine." And if he had become menacing when detected by the mother, the mother would be legally permitted to use deadly force to defend herself and her daughter without any duty to retreat.