Ethical Dilemna?

[olstyn]

As others have already said, regardless of the laws in your state, if they're exiting the premises, it's pretty darn hard to consider them a threat, and therefore would be unethical to fire on them, even if it might be legal to do so under certain circumstances in some jurisdictions. Aside from the ethics and legality of your proposed actions, you also need to consider the consequences. Shooting someone WILL result in emotional trauma and major inconvenience for you. Unless you're unbalanced to begin with, you won't like how you feel afterward. Your gun will be taken as evidence, to be returned at a date unknown, maybe, if you're lucky, and that presumes you're found to be in the right. You'll have to spend a lot of time talking with the cops about what happened, and your story had better match the evidence.

Basically, it's going to be bad for you in some (or a lot of) ways if you shoot someone, and therefore it should only be done in order to prevent something worse, such as a direct threat on your life or someone else's life. $300 worth of your stuff walking out the back door doesn't qualify - insurance will buy you a new TV, jewelry, etc.

Finally, if you DO have to shoot, trying to wound is flat stupid. If you have justification to fire at all, it's because you have justification to kill, and especially under the influence of adrenaline, center mass is a LOT bigger/easier target than a leg or other extremity, and has the interesting side benefit of being much more likely to actually stop the threat.