§ 20.04 Spring Guns

§20.04 Spring Guns²⁸

[A] The Issue

A "spring gun" or "trap gun" is a mechanical device that can be set off when a person opens a door or other entryway into or within a building equipped with such a device. A spring gun ordinarily has the capacity to kill or seriously injure the intruder. Such devices may be placed in an unoccupied home (e.g., while the residents are on vacation) or other structure (e.g., garages, barns, etc.). Although they are rarely used today, historically they were frequently placed in an occupied home in order to wound or kill an intruder while the occupant was asleep.

The problem with these devices springs from their advantage: They act mechanically—"without mercy or discretion."²⁹ A trap gun will as quickly kill an innocent child as an armed robber; it will kill an intoxicated neighbor mistakenly entering the premises, as well as a police officer or firefighter lawfully entering. Moreover, the device cannot determine whether deadly or nondeadly force is needed, or even whether a warning to desist would be sufficient. The lives of innocent people, therefore, may needlessly be lost by use of such devices.

Advocates of spring guns have argued that as long as the law permits use of deadly force to protect a dweller of a home, the means used to inflict it—personally or by his "agent," the spring gun—should not matter. Indeed, from the occupant's perspective, a mechanical device may provide special protection: It will stop the intruder immediately upon entry, before a confrontation can occur; in the case of an elderly or infirm resident, or one untrained in firearm use, the spring gun may be an especially effective mechanism for limiting unlawful entries.

The risks and benefits of spring guns are amply demonstrated by the facts reported in People v. Ceballos.³⁰ C placed a spring gun in his garage, a structure in which he kept valuable property and sometimes slept at night, after an unknown intruder attempted unsuccessfully to enter. One afternoon thereafter, while C was absent, two unarmed teenagers, after looking in a window to make sure that nobody was present, entered the garage in order to steal property. As they did so, the spring gun fired, striking one youth in the face.

C was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. He raised several claims in support of his right to use the spring gun, including defense-of-property, defense-of-habitation, crime prevention, and apprehension of a felon. The applicability of these defenses are...