Posted on 12/29/2011 4:59:35 AM PST by Erik Latranyi
Authorities announced Tuesday that a Somerset County man who shot and killed an armed rival in front of his Central City home will not be charged after they determined the freshly amended Castle Doctrine protected his right to shoot the man from his front porch.
Tony L. Bittinger, 43, of Salisbury, died almost instantly on the afternoon of Oct. 10 after being struck in the chest with an arrow.
The man behind the bow, a 38-year-old man whom police declined to identify, told police he fired on Mr. Bittinger after he came at him with a 32-inch wooden club.
State troopers said the spat stemmed from Mr. Bittinger's romantic involvement with the other man's wife.
Somerset County District Attorney Jerry Spangler said the case is the first in the county to test the controversial Castle Doctrine, which radically expanded a homeowner's right to use deadly force against an intruder. Though the man may have been cleared under the old law, "the new law makes it clearer," he said.
State police said Mr. Bittinger had called and threatened the man before. He became angry after the man's wife stopped returning his phone calls and left a voice mail on her phone saying that he was coming to "put a hole in [the man's] head."
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
LESSON #4: If someone breaks into your home--shoot first. Ask questions later. Don't worry about being sued for everything you've got and winding up in the penetentary.
BTW--how does the Castle Doctrine apply to the burgler who fell through the skylight and sued--successfully--the home owner on the grounds that his skylight was not safe enough to support the weight of the burgler?
>> You can sleep peacefully ... your children are safe in their beds ...
See the link below for a fascinating discussion on this (the original quote is often attributed to George Orwell). And be sure to look up the complete Rudyard Kipling brilliant “Tommy” poem.
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/11/07/rough-men/
“Don’t bring a club to an arrow fight.”
You're absolutely right, QB, these are wise remarks:
"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."In these dangerous times--when powerful people of inferior intellect and sloppy morality seek to deprive us of safety and the ability to protect our children and ourselves from violent, cruel, depraved, and evil criminals--we find that we ourselves must be the rough men standing ready to visit violence on those who would do us harm--and what's even more terrifying: the knaves and fools who have placed us in such jeopardy will, if they can, actually prevent us from protecting ourselves and our children!"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
How vile these people are whose hubris and intellectual and moral inferiority would threaten us so!
Vile knaves and fools have certainly seized great power in the dangerous world of the 21st century!
They must be stopped at all costs!
Oh, okay.
The song, 'Your Wife's Been Cheating On Us' keeps going through my head.
I am amazed at some of the stories posters highlight to support Second Amendment rights and "castle" laws, and the posters who show up to cheer. Rarely are the stories about a homeowner killing an evil home invader who is a complete stranger. They always seems to be about one druggie killing another druggie, or a stupid story like this one. ..Almost never anything truly righteous, where you can genuinely cheer for the "good guy".
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