Sam:
"If your credibility is not worth defending with a reference to a case then please stop arguing."
Not going to do that.
The case Ohm cited does not stand for what he thinks it does. I could tell that just by reading the part he pasted into his post.
Here's the MA statute, btw:
http://www.savetheguns.com/self_defense.htm#Massachusetts
GENERAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS
Chapter 278: Section 8A. Killing or injuring a person unlawfully in a dwelling; defense.
Section 8A. In the prosecution of a person who is an occupant of a dwelling charged with killing or injuring one who was unlawfully in said dwelling, it shall be a defense that the occupant was in his dwelling at the time of the offense and that he acted in the reasonable belief that the person unlawfully in said dwelling was about to inflict great bodily injury or death upon said occupant or upon another person lawfully in said dwelling, and that said occupant used reasonable means to defend himself or such other person lawfully in said dwelling. There shall be no duty on said occupant to retreat from such person unlawfully in said dwelling.
It is important to note that this law is only available to occupants of dwellings. An occupant is an individual who has some sort of possessory interest in the property in question, such as a tenant or an owner. A dwelling is a place where an individual is temporarily or permanently residing and which is one's exclusive possession. Generally this means that a dwelling has to be a permanent structure such as an apartment, a home, a summer cottage or, under some circumstances, a hotel or motel room. A dwelling CANNOT be a motor home, a tent, or a boat because these structures are not permanent and stationary.
If an intruder enters a dwelling and is NOT threatening death or serious bodily injury, the occupants have no right to use deadly force. If you are prosecuted for your use of deadly force in your home, the burden is on you to provide evidence that you acted in self defense. If you CANNOT provide evidence that you acted in self defense, then the Court will not instruct the jury that you have acted in self defense. And you may spend a very long time in prison for defending yourself.
Massachusetts law takes the position that if you are not within the walls of your home, you MUST make every attempt to escape or avoid all confrontation with an aggressor before your right of self defense arises. The basic difference between self defense inside your home and outside your home is that inside your home, you have no duty to retreat. Outside your home you must retreat if you can do so safely.