Property Defense
Name
Institution Affiliated
Property Defense
Booby Traps
A booby trap is any setup or device that a person creates intending to capture, surprise, harm, and even kill an animal or a person. The booby trap usually has some form of bait that lures in the intended victim, and the victim’s action sets it off. People designed booby traps to deter trespassers upon entering a restricted area or inside a vehicle. Booby traps include concealed traps, spike pits, and even IEDs (Jung & Wollmann, 2011).
I agree with the challenge that a person cannot and should not use deadly force when defending property. Deadly force can result in the loss of life of the person who trespasses or of the person that protects the property. In some cases, the use of deadly force can result in the injury and even death of an uninvolved third party because of the risks involved. Many might argue that people should use deadly force even when their lives are not in danger in the protection of property (Green, 1999).
The government and respective states should only allow the use of deadly force only during extreme conditions and as a last resort. For instance, a person should use lethal force when the person faces certain death or significant bodily harm, and also to prevent the loss of life of one person or another, and committing a forcible felony. A person, therefore, should never use lethal or deadly force in the protection of property from interference by someone else, even if that interference is illegal. A person should also not use lethal force even if there is no other alternative to deterring interference of the property. The government and states should not allow property owners to use booby raps in defense of their property even if they hang a sign to act as a given notice. Booby traps present dangers to everyone apart from the intruders and trespassers. They pose a threat to the property owner himself and the family as well.
Reasons Against the Use of Booby Traps
There are several reasons why a property owner should not use booby traps on the property. The reasons include the fact that booby traps are illegal. Booby traps involve the use of concealed devices to cause bodily harm or even death, and they consist of things such as tripwires connected to explosive devices, among other things. People usually set off booby traps by coming into contact with the devices, and according to the law, the term also includes things like firearms, stakes, and noxious fumes, to name a few. A property owner will face legal action if a device used as a deterrent causes bodily harm and death even to an unwanted intruder.
Booby traps put the property owner in danger. If there is an intruder, a booby trap might fail and act as an irritant to the intruder, causing the intruder to resort to drastic measures to punish the person that set the trap. The booby trap might also work against the property owner and alert the intruder, posing more danger to the owner of the property. The use of signs to warn intruders and trespassers of a booby trap does not exempt the owner of the property from lawsuits if someone gets injured by the traps set by the property owner. The owner would have to compensate any person that suffers bodily harm as a result of coming into contact with the traps. It does not matter whether there was a sign or not. The property owner can also forget to deactivate the trap that he set, and that can pose a danger to the life of the owner.
Reference
Green, S. P. (1999). Castles and carjackers: Proportionality and the use of deadly force in defense of dwellings and vehicles. U. Ill. L. Rev., 1. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/unilllr1999&div=8&g_sent=1&casa_token=e9E1sH03VvkAAAAA:q910a5aTL_kzC2xWFc233tbpadhE8Wa8A8yIj_DPQFKCLjLAhl_i2wSx4CnJOR_iXJ7kekk6&collection=journals
Jung, M., & Wollmann, G. (2011). U.S. Patent No. 7,999,723. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://patents.google.com/patent/US7999723B2/en