TexasCHLforum.com

From a safe distance: "Excuse me, but that's my car. Can I help you?" The felon either flees or he doesn't.

If he doesn't stop, [hand on gun, but not drawn]"HEY!!!! GET THE BLANKETY BLANK BLANK AWAY FROM MY CAR!!!!"[/hand on gun but not drawn]

Then see what develops, and act accordingly. You might never have to draw the gun. He may back down and offer some lame excuse and back away. He may argue and tell you to go have intimate knowledge of yourself. If he backs away, call 911 when its safe to do so, and report the attempted theft and give a good solid description of the individual. If he stands there and argues, get it on video and warn him that you are calling 911 (with your hand on your gun, but not drawn), and then actually call and let him see that you're actually on the phone with them. Make sure you tell the 911 operator that you are armed, but have not yet drawn your gun. That may have the desired effect, but keep 911 on the phone until he leaves.......IF he leaves. If he does not leave, but instead comes at you, draw the gun and let the operator know what's going on. Hopefully, the sight of the gun deters further aggression. If not, shoot him.

BUT...... I can think of other things that would avoid all of the above..... for instance, does your car have remote security buttons on the key? Does it have an emergency horn button on it that, when pushed, causes the horn to begin honking loudly and continuously until you press it to stop? No thief wants that kind of attention. In addition to that, I also have a carl alarm installed. Among other neat tricks, even if someone succeeds in breaking in and hot-wiring the ignition, pressing on either the gas or brake pedals will disable the engine immediately unless the key (not a screwdriver) has been put in the ignition and turned exactly 2 clicks to the right, and it cannot be restarted without disabling the alarm first. As an added tactic, I can remote start the car from a distance, startling the thief and maybe driving him off.

My point is that there are all kinds of tactics available in most late model cars that can potentially spare you the need to physically confront a thief, or to get involved in a shooting. Shooting is a last resort, but that doesn't mean that you have to just stand there and not do something to try and protect your property from theft. Shooting to stop a theft may be permissible under certain aspects of the law, but you have to decide for yourself whether or not the value of property is worth taking a human life. But there is an entire continuum of possible responses between ignoring the theft, and shooting the thief, which are far less troublesome legally and easier to live with morally than shooting someone over property.