Oregon: 161.219 Limitations on use of deadly physical force in defense of a person. Notwithstanding the provisions of ORS 161.209, a person is not justified in using deadly physical force upon another person unless the person reasonably believes that the other person is: (1) Committing or attempting to commit a felony involving the use or threatened imminent use of physical force against a person; or (2) Committing or attempting to commit a burglary in a dwelling; or (3) Using or about to use unlawful deadly physical force against a person. [1971 c.743 §23] the rub in this statute is that it is not the final reality that determines it, but the "reasonable belief" of the person using using the deadly force. for instance, if you honestly believe that someone is going to use deadly force against you, and that belief is reasonable, then you are justified to use deadly force. case law is full of examples to illustrate this. the cases for instance where the police officer chases the felon down and yells for him to stop and "freeze", but the idiot reaches into his pocket instead and the cop shoots him. whether the guy was reaching for a gun or a lighter or his cell phone doesn't matter, just the reasonable belief on the part of the cop that he was reaching for a gun is enough. clear? lol. oregon law is always a work in progress. as to lawsuits, the old axiom is that there is no fence around the courthouse, anyone can sue anyone for anything. collecting is another thing. follow the law, use reason and common sense and only act if you have no other alternative left and you will be fine.
Here you can shoot until the attacker is no longer a threat - if you're about to shoot and he turns and walks away you cannot shoot. Supposedly. A while back a guy shot at robbers, and as they were driving away he kept shooting and they didn't charge him with anything. I was amazed. Luckily we don't have the idiotic "must try to retreat" crap. Just shoot and be done with it, and let the lawsuits begin. But here we can also drive around with loaded weapons of any type, so even if you don't have a permit you have that. No state law even addresses it so there are no limitations except localities that have laws against it. Two places that I know of have those.
Sometimes my state is a bit weird, but I am allowed to shoot until I feel the threat is alleviated. If that means emptying my magazine into the person I am justified in doing so just as long as I remember to state those simple words. "Officer I fired until I felt the person was no longer a threat." End of story... Of course being a female doesn't hurt any either.
And in my state... we have the Shoot First Law... which can come in kind of handy......... and yeah..being a female doesn't hurt........
I have the good old restrictive law that you can only shoot someone if you feel that your life is threatened and you have no other means to escape the situation. If someone is robbing your house and you walk in on them, you walk back out because defense of property is not a reason to shoot or shoot at someone. Now, if you get cornered and you cannot escape, shoot until the threat is eliminated. A wounded felon now has a story to say. My old neighbor had a big burly black man break into her house. She ran upstairs, locked the door and called 911. When the police arrived, he was still there and claimed he was in his house. He claimed he walked home drunk and was home. He was almost 15 blocks in the wrong direction, wasn't that drunk and it is funny that we were having a string of burgularies in our neighborhood that mysteriously quit. Had she shot and wounded him, she would have been arrested without the statement "I was afraid for my life"
Things are looking up for us here in Florida, with the new law. However, despite the Antis saying it'll be like 'The Old West' (heck, the Old West wasn't like the Old West!), we still must be in fear for our lives if we shoot. We don't have to turn our backs and run, and we can defend ourselves in public - but we still cannot shoot an unarmed person trying to steal our car and making no move against us - all shooting incidents will be investigated!
