Shouldn't be, though.
Limit destructiveness and require a failsafe mechanism, along with a some kind of warning if set not in a fenced or enclosed area.
There are a wide number of reasons why someone could be on your property, and many would not be illegal. What if you have a medical emergency, and paramedics need to enter, but you are incapable of defusing the trap? Suddenly, you've killed or wounded paramedics.
In the US the courts have rules that right to life is more important than property rights. Doesn’t matter if it’s a trespasser. If you dig a pit with spikes or rig a gun to go off when the door opens you will be liable for the injury and can go to prison for assault or murder or whatever.
My property is more valuable than the life of whoever would take it from me. Because my property is my life. It is my sweat, my blood, my time, and me. To steal anything from me is to steal the life I poured into it.
And work is the only way to acquire property? You are assuming the only people vulnerable to injury are there to steal or destroy. What about a kid who decides to hop your fence as a shortcut to get a street over and triggers your trap? Is his trespassing worth death or maiming?
You can ask me to post signs, and I will gladly. Even impose that any traps must be in a secured place.
I'm not going to play what-if games. What's mine is mine. End of discussion.
If you break the rules consequences follow. Wether they make sense or are reasonable that is how life is. I have two rifles. Both operate the same, fire the same caliber, both exactly the same except for a small mechanical difference that does not affect it's operation. Because of that, one rifle is illegal to leave the house. The other has no restrictions other then it must be unloaded for transportation. The punishment for the first rifle leaving the house? Five years in a federal prison as a first offence. Lifes punishments don't always make sense so it's best to follow the rules and not invade a persons most private and safe area, eh?
By that same logic its best to follow the rules and not set traps that are illegal. The issue is that that mechanics are indiscriminate in their effects. The what-if scenarios are the core of the legal status. In the range of possible outcomes the positives are in the vast monitory. @famousone You sound like a toddler when you say “what’s mine is mine” and you’re better than that.
If I gotta post signs and maybe not get EMS and fire to help me out, so be it. I just want to be secure in what I have spent my life acquiring, and what I have that was left by those who can never come back.
As far as I'm concerned, people coming to take my stuff is more likely than emergency services showing up (we're 3 to 0 now), and a very desirable outcome.
For the record, I know it's illegal, I just wish it weren't.
"What's mine is mine" isn't childish. It's the basis of the liberal republic I live in and it's ideals that I love more than life itself.
@scatmandingo
Thanks for catching that. I should have been clear. I have a different view of law then both of you most likely. To me rules and laws are different. Law is what the government set down to create "order". Rules are what you learn from childhood and onwards of how to act according to society. If my dad found out I trespassed in someone's yard he'd have had me limp over there and apologize regardless of how I was injured. "If it's not yours don't touch it." Any consequences that follow are your fault.
I understand this conversation is regarding law and I have too little respect for it to add anything other then a third perspective.
Clarification: it is illegal to set potentially lethal traps anywhere on your property. Thus, shotgun- string-doorknob = illegal. BUT non-lethal is grey area. I prefer heavy plywood to drywall and bars on windows to keep trespassers locked in until they decide to surrender. Sound system plays loop of 3&4th graders at recess, baby crying, sunday church on TV, dog barking, seagulls, and C-SPAN all at once... non stop. Only way out is a wifi calling cell phone disabled to all numbers except 911.
Limit destructiveness and require a failsafe mechanism, along with a some kind of warning if set not in a fenced or enclosed area.
Not how it should be.
I'm not going to play what-if games. What's mine is mine. End of discussion.
As far as I'm concerned, people coming to take my stuff is more likely than emergency services showing up (we're 3 to 0 now), and a very desirable outcome.
For the record, I know it's illegal, I just wish it weren't.
"What's mine is mine" isn't childish. It's the basis of the liberal republic I live in and it's ideals that I love more than life itself.
Thanks for catching that. I should have been clear. I have a different view of law then both of you most likely. To me rules and laws are different. Law is what the government set down to create "order". Rules are what you learn from childhood and onwards of how to act according to society. If my dad found out I trespassed in someone's yard he'd have had me limp over there and apologize regardless of how I was injured. "If it's not yours don't touch it." Any consequences that follow are your fault.
I understand this conversation is regarding law and I have too little respect for it to add anything other then a third perspective.