There is a world of baloney and speculation out there with respect to self defense trials when the victim used a handgun - or any gun - to defend his life. There are certain rules of thumb that weigh heavily in the favor of we, the people, when it comes to self defense shootings. One interesting rule that you cannot control very well is jurisdiction - do you live in a gun favorable or unfavorable jurisdiction or where were you when the incident occurred? A self defense shooting is easier to not be prosecuted for when the locals and their LEOs and DAs are pro-gun and pro-citizen versus certain other things that they can be "pro" that most of us here dislike. But that's just a circumstance that has nothing to do with a justifiable shooting.
I have said this here before and I'll say it again - it makes NO DIFFERENCE what gun you used, what ammunition, what your gun has done to it, or not, if the shooting was clearly justifiable. Your gun might not even get a cursory laboratory examination if the DA refuses to prosecute from the outset or you get a no true bill from a grand jury. You can use a Desert Eagle, a blunderbuss, a tricked out IPSC race gun, or a 12 pound triggered antique revolver - justified is justified. All the rest is noise.
If, however, there is any reason to cause the DA, the arresting officer, or any of that fraternity to think that maybe the shooting was not so "righteous", well, then you need to be prepared for the more difficult examination of circumstances, motives, and weapons. If you know that your local gendarmerie and prosecutors HATE armed citizens, well, then you need to plan your gun carrying or home defense strategy bearing that in mind.
If people are being arrested and prosecuted for self defense shootings in droves I'd like to hear about it. Good planning is always smart but walking around thinking that your tricked out Kimber 1911 .45 ACP is going to get you into trouble that a standard S&W 642 .38 Special will avoid is just hype generated by people who like to hear themselves talk.
Some of the discussion above is on point - you won't get arrested on the spot if the LEOs are not suspicious with respect to you story and the picture they see of the event. They might take your gun; I can't speak to that, but sleeping in your own bed is likely if you don't act like a jerk and didn't do anything obviously wrong.
As to these items:
1) On a production gun (not a custom gun), leave the trigger pull weight alone.
As a rule I do not tinker with triggers because I dislike light triggers. But there's "light" and there's "a little lighter". I have two defensive guns with triggers that are a modified but not ridiculously light. They shoot way better than they did when I acquired them - and shooting well is the reason to do it. Not to kill people. That's a baloney answer.
If you want a lighter trigger, get a different gun, but don't lighten the trigger below the factory settings. Smoothing the trigger pull and eliminating over travel should be fine, as long as you don't lighten the pull weight.
Says who? Ridiculous. As I said, as a rule I do not do it, but for the guns where I have had it done, no big deal.
2) If using a high-end custom pistol, a 4-pound trigger pull weight is the industry standard, and anything lighter could be argued as unreasonable.
Personally, I think light triggers are unreasonable because they're dangerous. Not because you're not a better shooter, assuming you can handle a light trigger (which i admit that I cannot; I'll just have ADs at the range routinely), but because you might touch off a round unintentionally when the adrenaline hits you. Stopping an attack doesn't always require deadly force - you pull a gun on a perp and he surrenders or truns and runs and then BANG! That's when youre screwed.
3) If you modify your gun it is best to have that modification performed by a competent gunsmith, one who will be willing to go to court and testify why he performed the modification. You had better be personally prepared to logically explain why that modification was done, too.
That makes no sense. I didn't get a third degree from my gunsmith when i paid him to lighten my triggers. I paid him. he did it. What does he care why? He will testify that he did it because I asked him to do it - it makes no difference why. This is hogwash.
4) Never deactivate a safety device on a gun you use for self defense. If you just cannot live with whatever safety device you want to deactivate, then simply change to a different weapon type that does not have that feature.
Okay, I agree with that one. If you can't handle your firearm's safety device get a different gun. But that's pure gun handling logic - you can't drive a stickshift? Drive an automatic transmission. Same logic.
5) Use only factory ammunition for self defense and buy it in sufficient quantity that if exemplars are needed for testing, they are available.
The real reason to use factory ammunition for your self defense tools is because the failure rate of factory ammunition is so low as to be negligible. I don't care how good you are at loading; you cannot match 1 failure in a billion or whatever the statistic is. The only advice I give beyond that to my students is that if you know what the local police use then use the same thing. Nobody can fault you for that kind of good planning.
6) Leave the cute, custom paint jobs, engraving and cartoon logos off your serious self-defense guns. The place for those affectations is at the range, not in the courtroom.
Well, IF you are involved in a self defense shooting, do you really want to hand over a weapon painted with skulls and voodoo symbols that you nicknamed Death Ray? That not only makes you look silly it goes to what we call "
mens rea". If the LEOs are suspicious about the event and you hand them the Death Star, painted with Light Sabers and
you'll look ridiculous and if there is reason to doubt the situation that paint job will engender questions you don't need asked so treat your guns like the defensive tools that they were intended to be, respect them, and respect their power, and act accordingly.
But that brings me full circle - if you blew away a perp in your living room armed with a Bowie knife and threatening your family and the gun you used is a camouflage painted AR-style rifle with the words "
DEATH
TO ALL WHO DARKEN MY DOORSTEP
" you'll still look like an idiot but it's unlikely that you'll be prosecuted. But why take that chance?
Yes - lawyer and firearms instructor - in case you were wondering.
...but I can give you his opinion on lighter than factory triggers in general as they apply to justifiable self-defense:
