Defending Property – Sample

Defending your property… The Iowa code says in it you can use reasonable force to defend your property. We just learned that reasonable force can include deadly force. But, NEVER can you use deadly force to defend your property. Imagine you come home from a weekend away and you open your house door and find someone in your living room holding your TV, all of a sudden they run out the back door with your TV in hand. Well, your carrying your handgun on your hip and you start shooting at him or shooting him, you just used deadly force to defend your property. With a scenario like this you will in the very least be paying a lawyer to defend you in court. That lawyer will cost leaps and bounds more than your TV was worth. And frankly you will probably be sent to prison for murder or manslaughter for using deadly force to defend your property.

Iowa Code 704.4 Defense of property

A person is justified in the use of reasonable force to prevent or terminate criminal interference with the person’s possession or other right in property. Nothing in this section authorizes the use of any spring gun or trap which is left unattended and unsupervised and which is placed for the purpose of preventing or terminating criminal interference with the possession of or other right in property.

704.5 Aiding another in the defense of property

A person is justified in the use of reasonable force to aid another in the lawful defense of the other person’s rights in property or in any public property.

Iowa Use of Force Law – opens in another window – can be printed