Colorado "Make my day" law keeps man from being charged

U.S. National - AP

'Make My Day' Law Shields Slay Suspect
Tue Nov 11,12:15 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!



AULT, Colo. - A man accused of killing a neighbor in a dispute that started with a barking dog will not be charged with a crime because of Colorado's "make my day" law, which protects residents protecting themselves from intruders.



Weld County District Attorney Al Dominguez said Monday he had no choice.


"I have a dead human being and that death was caused by someone shooting a shotgun at him. Under normal circumstances, that kind of behavior demands a consequence," Dominguez said. The decision "was very difficult. I struggled with it all weekend."


Eric Griffin, 33, upset by the barking of a dog belonging to neighbor Richard Hammock, allegedly wounded the animal with a pellet gun Nov. 2. Hammock, 48, then went to Griffin's home carrying a 3-foot board, authorities said.


Griffin's girlfriend told police she heard breaking glass and a shotgun blast. Dominguez said the woman reported Griffin told her he fired when Hammock tried to enter the house.


Griffin has an unlisted phone number and couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

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This is a tough one. If someone was shooting at your dog with a pellet gun, what would you do?

 

If I knew it was a pellet gun, walk out and retreive my dog with a REAL GUN at the ready. Then call police.

If I didn't know, return fire.

 

Never bring a 2x4 to a gunfight.

 

This debate has been going on preety hot and heavy over at Packing for a couple of days the general concensus is that the shooter got away with murder. here's some more info you may have to copy/paste because I suck at the tech stuff
http://www.9news.com/storyfull.aspx?storyid=20786

 

Duplicate Thread
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49511

 

Quote:
"Never bring a 2x4 to a gunfight."

You got THAT right.

 

Dead guy should have called the cops. If he took a 2x4 next door, it's not murder. Seems like the DA would have liked to prosecute, so I assume he's sure the lumber wasn't a throwdown.

What's Packing's address? I'd like to check out the debate there

 

Sounds pretty cowardly to me. Instead of asking the neighbor to quite his dog down or calling the police (noise disturbance violation), he takes it out on the dog by injuring it with a pellet gun.

 

I assume semf is referring to:

http://www.packing.org/

 

That's what I would have figured, but didn't see any discussion of this case. But the chat area there is harder to read through.

 

I am not going to weigh in either way...except to say stuff like this does not strengthen our position.....

Either one of them could have avoided this....

 

Should read "'Make My Day' Law Shields Victim."

Smashing your way into a home with a club because you think a guy may have pinged your annoying dog with a pellet gun isn't the act of a law-abiding citizen - this is an instance where calling 911 would've been the proper response.

 

Make my day law was anti-gun

The MMDL was crap from the get go. It limited our rights, both within our home and without. Good thing most gun owners don't understand that.

 

Steve,

Can you elaborate? I'm not real familiar with the law.

 

Yes I was speaking of http://www.packing.org/

You have to go back in time to Mon Nov 10 and Tue Nov11 under Laws.

That guy DirtyJap is truly inspiring and intelligent

Words of wisdom from the Dirty one :

What this ruling tells me and what we all should already know is That you can't beat a man with a club because you think he shot your dog with a pellet gun, But you can shoot him for threatening to do you bodily harm on your own property while in the frame of mind and possessing the necessary tools to immediately do so.

 

Impressive perception! The subtleties of law are lost on most.

(I'll let you explain it!)