re: Prosecutor investigating St Louis gun toting couple feels targeted

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Obviously you don't understand the term brandishing. "Brandishing" is pointing a firearm at somebody without legal cause. It's technically aggravated assault. Carrying in the "low ready" like the man in the gif shows is not brandishing.

However, this, by letter of the law, is.

Now that doesn't mean I think the charges are valid or will stick eventually, but if you are a gun owner it's your responsibility to know what you can and cannot do with a firearm.

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The only thing she did wrong was not pull the trigger.

I'll add this. As a homeowner and a firearm owner, it's situations like this where you need other less than lethal options. For example, we have multiple cans of OC (bear) spray around the house. Additionally, a dog is one of the best home defense tools you can have. They are better hearing than you, and can alert you to intruders before you know they are there.

People who are serious about protecting their need to think about these situations before hand. You need to game plan different scenarios and what level of force escalation you need to use in each. As the old saying goes, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Simply going for the gun may not be the best option in every situation.

For example, late one night (11-ish) a few years ago, we have a neighbor kid lose his basketball in our back yard. So he jumped our fence and started walking around our back yard. No big deal. But our dog senses him and starts barking. Wife looks outside and sees someone back there. When you boil it down he was doing nothing more than the protesters in the video. Would I have been justified to pull a gun on him or turn out the dog? We told him after it was over and we figured out what was really going on, we didn't care that he was back there getting his ball, but his timing or approach wasn't very good.

How do the optics of this situation change here if the home owners have cans of OC spray in their hands instead of guns? It most certainly eliminates the criminal aspect of it. Plus a wide dispersing OC spray is prefect for keeping folks "off my lawn". Just hit them with the hot sauce and let them walk away in tears.

Your home should have several layers of defense. For example, we have lights, (two way) security cameras, a dog, OC spray, and firearms. (I should also add many, many people neglect open handed (fighting) skills as a last layer of protection.) While (at least in my state) the castle doctrine applies to my entire property, where (and when) someone is within those layers determines my response. If they are on my front lawn that's one thing. My back yard is something else. Inside my home uninvited late at night? I'll (likely) be brandishing a firearm on them and won't think twice about it.