re what to do if you shoot somebody in article u uicvm uic edu jason kratz u uicvm uic edu writes say you re in a situation where you have to pull a gun on somebody you give them a chance to get away but they decided to continue in their action anyway and you end up shooting and killing them my question is what do you do should you stay and wait for the cops or should you collect your brass if you re using a semi auto and get out of there provided of course you don t think that you have been seen for me it would be an obvious choice armed self defence is clearly and strongly protected by the colorado constitution and the laws of the state in the very clear cut situation of your hypothetical i wouldn t have anything to fear from the police unless i had been publicly carrying the weapon concealed something i m not in the habit of doing even then the worst i d have to deal with was a class misdemeanor even if the situation were not so clear and i might have to worry about arrest for manslaughter or homicide it would still be safer to wait for the police if i were to leave and try to avoid police involvement i d be committing several felonies and ruining my chances of claiming self defence in court if it really was self defence the prosecuter would ask why did you run away and hide from the police in other states however this decision might not be so clear cut if someone in say washington d c were to use a gun in self defence he would automatically be guilty of several felony violations of that city s gun control laws such a person s choices would be between certain conviction for a couple of felonies versus possible conviction for half a dozen frank crary cu boulder
