I was talking to my neighbor yesterday and he was telling me about something that happened to him and I wanted to get everyone’s opinion here. Now to start my neighbor embellishes stuff to make him look "Tough" and he did not much like my reply to his story.
He said that he was out riding his horse and was riding on the edge of a field when the landowner came up and was going to run over him and his horse with his Jeep. He did not say what words were exchanged, but the tone was that it was an argument. He said he said there were no signs so he did not feel he was trespassing. Well he said he reached in to his saddlebag and pulled out his gun and put it on his saddle. I did not get any further in the story once he said this. I was already thinking to myself Bull S***
My first thought is this never happened, but if it did, I do not think anyone would want to hit a horse with a vehicle. It does not even sound logical to me. So let us say that never happened. What I focused on was the way he displayed his gun because I have had to run off trespasser on my dads land before. My first reaction is if they display a gun when on your property while you are telling them to leave than this is an act of aggression and a reasonable person could have feared for his life at that point. In NC, there is no duty to retreat on your property so the landowner could have used deadly force and could had most likely gotten away with it even if he did threaten to run over him and his horse. He was response was he threatened his life first and here is how I laid it out for him.
1. He was trespassing the guy was telling him to leave
2. He showed his gun to intimidate the land owner this would be an act of aggression IMO and I would take it that it could be seen as a refusal to leave the property.
3. He was carrying a concealed weapon with no permit. (The landowner would not know this, but it would help him in an investigation)
4. If he were dead then how would anyone know the guy threatened him first?
He said with your attitude you are going to try to run off a trespasser and someone will need to come find you. My response was well that maybe true, but I would never approach a trespasser alone, and for every action I am going to come back one step harder then my opponent and in the situation he described to me the moment someone displayed a gun like he said he did then lead would have started flying if he did not drop it almost instantly. So what would you do?
He said that he was out riding his horse and was riding on the edge of a field when the landowner came up and was going to run over him and his horse with his Jeep. He did not say what words were exchanged, but the tone was that it was an argument. He said he said there were no signs so he did not feel he was trespassing. Well he said he reached in to his saddlebag and pulled out his gun and put it on his saddle. I did not get any further in the story once he said this. I was already thinking to myself Bull S***
My first thought is this never happened, but if it did, I do not think anyone would want to hit a horse with a vehicle. It does not even sound logical to me. So let us say that never happened. What I focused on was the way he displayed his gun because I have had to run off trespasser on my dads land before. My first reaction is if they display a gun when on your property while you are telling them to leave than this is an act of aggression and a reasonable person could have feared for his life at that point. In NC, there is no duty to retreat on your property so the landowner could have used deadly force and could had most likely gotten away with it even if he did threaten to run over him and his horse. He was response was he threatened his life first and here is how I laid it out for him.
1. He was trespassing the guy was telling him to leave
2. He showed his gun to intimidate the land owner this would be an act of aggression IMO and I would take it that it could be seen as a refusal to leave the property.
3. He was carrying a concealed weapon with no permit. (The landowner would not know this, but it would help him in an investigation)
4. If he were dead then how would anyone know the guy threatened him first?
He said with your attitude you are going to try to run off a trespasser and someone will need to come find you. My response was well that maybe true, but I would never approach a trespasser alone, and for every action I am going to come back one step harder then my opponent and in the situation he described to me the moment someone displayed a gun like he said he did then lead would have started flying if he did not drop it almost instantly. So what would you do?