Inspired by the bad horror movie “Would You Rather”.
A psycho dinner host lays two guns in front of me and another guest and offer $1,000,000 to whomever shoots the other. Would it be self-defense for me to shoot the other guest? Would they have to motion to the gun or pick it up before it’s self-defense?
Can you shoot the psychopath? That seems like it would be self defense.
Officer, I shot him because he put out a million dollar contract on my life.
Why shoot anyone? Remove both guns from anyone’s reach. The psychopath likely hasn’t got a million dollars anyway.
If he’s laid it out on the table in a suitcase in the usual movie style, use it to whack him in the face and make your getaway with the dosh in the confusion.
Interesting question. Particularly since murder for hire, which is what the prosecution is likely claiming you did, is one of those enhancement murders that is some states will put the death penalty on the table.
I wonder if whether, after killing the guy, you stated “I decline the million dollars”, would make any kind of difference to the court?
IANAL but I don’t think you have a reasonable argument for self-defense until the other person shows a clear intent to shoot you. Simply having an incentive of $1M is not sufficient to demonstrate intent, IMHO. I would think the person would have to at least pick up the gun, and possibly point it at you.
Now let’s make the game more interesting. The psycho has a third gun and says he is going to kill either or both of you if you make no attempt to shoot the other within 5 seconds. The only way to survive this game is to kill the other person. For the sake of argument let’s say the psycho is in a head-to-toe bulletproof jumpsuit and cannot be killed. In this case, there may be sufficient incentive to demonstrate self-defense if you can act before the other person has picked up his gun.
Let’s assume if you turn the gun on the psychopath, his goons will shoot you in the face.
Second scenario is the same but if neither one of you shoots the other in one minute, you both are killed. Does that change anything?
IANAL, but I don’t think lethal force is allowed unless there’s an ***immediate ***threat to your safety. Example, if you get into a quarrel with your neighbor who’s 30 feet away, and he says “that’s it, I’m getting my gun,” you can’t shoot him until he actually comes back outside with his gun (or gets dangerously close to you with some other deadly weapon).
In the case you describe, I don’t think you can justifiably shoot in self-defense until/unless the other guy picks up a gun first. Of course, he’s in the same situation. If you’re both reasonable, stable people, then you’ll both realize that it’s not worth risking a lengthy prison sentence for a $1M payout, and you’ll both walk away. But if one of you has impulse control problems, then this is an unstable situation and is likely to end badly.
Whether or not the million dollars exists is meaningless if my opponent believes he has it and is willing to shoot me for it.
I think the point was that if I grab both guns, nobody needs to die. Maybe.