I was reading through the thread from a couple months ago about the three home invaders who were shot and killed by the homeowner in Oklahoma. In the midst of reading it, a thought crossed my mind, which I thought might be important to the members and an interesting legal question.

Castle Doctrine laws generally protects the occupants of a dwelling from civil suit for injury or wrongful death, when someone invades the dwelling with criminal intent. If the occupant used a NFA firearm (SBR, SBS, Suppressor), owned by a trust or corporation, to injure or kill the invader, could the criminal or their family sue the NFA trust or corporation, as they are a separate legal entity from the occupant?

The motivation behind this is to determine whether you could lose your whole NFA collection, held under a trust or corp., if it were used in a home defense situation.

What do you think? SF lawyers, any thoughts?

In many states, if a self-defense shooting is legal, related civil lawsuits are precluded by state law.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
In many states, if a self-defense shooting is legal, related civil lawsuits are precluded by state law.

Right, which is what is stated above WRT Castle Doctrine Laws. The point of my question is whether a loophole is created in the law, by using an NFA firearm to injure or kill the intruder/criminal, because the NFA Trust/Corp is a separate legal entity from the occupant. The CD laws usually state the occupant is protected, but nothing beyond that.

So I'm not a lawyer, and I'm sure some of the forum legal minds will chip in, but even though the trust is a different entity, what would be the goal of bringing a suit against the trust? It has no income or value other than the NFA items. While those items might be worth some amount, it strikes me that any vulture bringing suit would be after more than what the trust owns.

quote:

Originally posted by jbcummings:
So I'm not a lawyer, and I'm sure some of the forum legal minds will chip in, but even though the trust is a different entity, what would be the goal of bringing a suit against the trust? It has no income or value other than the NFA items. While those items might be worth some amount, it strikes me that any vulture bringing suit would be after more than what the trust owns.

You have a point. Most gun owners NFA entities probably have less than $10K worth of value. I supposed it would depend on whether the lawyer thought it was worth going after it. On the other hand, some NFA entities have $20K machine guns and other good stuff that could kick the value up enough to be worth the lawsuit, if a lawsuit is possible.

As much as anything, I'm interested in the legal mechanics of this.