TexasCHLforum.com

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it still make noise?

If someone breaks the law and doesn't get caught, was a crime committed?

All in all, I think CTXPTA (troll?) did a bang up job on this one.

ctxpta wrote:Do you break the law if the following happens??

Person trying to rob you shots at you. Their shot hits you. They appear to be taking another shot. You draw your weapon and shot the person. The person dies.

Did you commit a crime?

Did you break the law? Yes or no?

Was a crime commited? Yes or no?

txinvestigator wrote:
So if you got mad at your neighbor and shot him with your pistola, they could not charge you with murder if he died?

You have to admit, it would be a novel defense.

To close, if I've learned anything from this forum, it is that Texas law makes about as much sense as a painting by Escher. I'm not going to consider myself a criminal or a murderer, nor do I think God the creator and supreme authority of such matters will, if I shoot someone in self defense and they die.

Yes. I did read the definition.

"Knowingly is defined; (b) A person acts knowingly, or with knowledge, with respect to the nature of his conduct or to circumstances surrounding his conduct when he is aware of the nature of his conduct or that the
circumstances exist. A person acts knowingly, or with knowledge,
with respect to a result of his conduct when he is aware that his conduct is reasonably certain to cause the result."


I know that my actions (shooting someone with a handgun) are reasonably certain to NOT cause the death of the person being shot.

Maybe the problem is with the term "reasonably."

Most persons, being ignorant of firearms wounds, "reasonably" assume that if one shoots another with a handgun, the person shot will automatically die.

I know from research that the great majority of persons shot with a handgun do not die.

How can it be said that I "knowingly caused the death of the individual" when I have no way of knowing if they will die or not? I am not shooting to kill. I am shooting to stop their behavior.

We are trained to shoot to stop, not shoot to kill.

I don't think this qualifies as "intentionally or knowingly cause(ing) the death of an individual" if the person shot ends up dead.