Yesterday, when I was bloviating about how all gun owners should have a lawyer who is knowledgeable about gun and self-defense laws, Freiheit called my bluff and asked where one would find such a creature.  To be honest, I didn’t have a good answer off the top of my head, but like anyone who has ever stood in front of a Soldier of the Month board, I punted:  “Sergeant Major, I do not know the answer to that question, but I will look it up and get the answer to you.”.

I reached out to the Second Amendment Foundation and the NRA, and got a quick response from them.

The SAF maintains a lawyer referral service.  According to the SAF person who spoke with me, they can’t promise a team of angry lawyers being readily available everywhere, but they have a lawyer or two on their list in each of the 50 states.  The number to call to speak to someone about a lawyer is 425-454-7012.

The NRA also maintains a couple of numbers that members can call for referral to an attorney.  The first one is their general membership number, which is 800-672-3888.  The other number is to their NRA-ILA Grassroots office at 800-392-8683.  NRA also offers  personal liability insurance to its members to help with the cost of attorneys and any settlements/judgements that arise from a self-defense incident.

As reader Jake pointed out in comments, the United States Concealed Carry Association also maintains a list of lawyers for their members and offers insurance for self-defense related legal costs.  I need to join USCCA for a lot of reasons, but checking that out is one of them.

That’s what I’ve been able to dig up in the past day or so.  There are probably more resources out there, but sorting the wheat from the chaff on the Internet will drive a person mad.  A quick Google search for “Louisville firearm attorney” turned up a lot of lawyers who will take cases for people who violate firearms laws, but none that I could easily tell are experienced in personal liability cases dealing with firearms.   Like Freiheit said in his comment, going to the phone book isn’t the best thing to do, even with all of the information that readily available on the web.

Reader John made a point that some homeowners policies may provide coverage in the event of a self-defense related lawsuit.  I need to get mine out and give it a good, thorough reading, and I should give a call to my agent.  It may well be that the liability portion of my policy covers me, at least to some extent, when I get sued for shooting a goblin.  Freiheit made another excellent point that having a lawyer that works directly for you, in addition to any attorney that the insurance company may hire to represent both your and their interests in a lawsuit, is probably a good idea.  If you get a lawyer who’s got experience in cases that deal with firearms and self-defense, they can be a great addition to your legal team.

What this all brings home is, like I said, we should all do our homework before we need an attorney.  Learn the laws related to firearms and self-defense in your area, including where and how you can carry concealed, what is considered by a prosecutor when deciding whether or not to bring charges, about what the laws about civil litigation and liability are like in your state.  At least get the name of an attorney that knows their way around the civil and criminal systems when it pertains to self-defense gun use, contact them to establish a relationship, and have their contact information handy in the event that the world falls in on you.

Hope all this helps. Thanks to everyone who gave such great input in comments and pointed me in the right direction to find all this out.

A 90-year-old man in California is being sued by the meth addict who broke into his home, tied him up, shot him, and held a gun to his head.  The homeowner is being sued because in the middle of all that, he managed to get loose, get a gun, and when his attacker shot at him, he shot back.  Both were hit, and in the ensuing physical struggle, the burglar got the homeowner’s gun away from him.  He held it to the 90-year-old man’s head, and only didn’t shoot him because the gun was empty. 

Now, the meth-head, burglar, attempted murderer is suing the homeowner.  Apparently when a 90-year-old man defends his life, he causes “great bodily injury, and other financial damage, including loss of Mr. Cutrufelli’s home, and also the dissolution of Mr. Cutrufelli’s marriage,”.

I don’t know about y’all, but let’s say that I lose my inhibitions against using drugs, breaking into nonagenarians’ homes, tieing them up, shooting them, physically attacking them, and then holding what I believe to be a loaded gun to their heads and pulling the trigger.  Hey, we all have our off days, so I’ll put this in the “Not likely, but at least remotely possible” category.  So, assuming that all of my societal norms that pertain to how I treat people two to three times my age and not breaking into people’s homes and stealing their belongings were suddenly gone, would I, after sobering up and having some time chained to a hospital bed to think about it, have the chutzpah to sue the guy I tried to kill?  I can say, with a small amount of pride, that after my life fell apart because of my actions and having a good think about what I did, that I would be so ashamed of myself that the thought of forcing a 90-year-old man to lawyer up would be unthinkable.

Of course, I was raised right.  Well, at least the attempt was made.  Let’s be honest here:  If I was to ever even consider doing what this schlemeel did, my grandmother would rise from her grave, hunt me down, and beat me within an inch of my life.  Exactly how screwed up do you have to be, both as the guy who did it and as the lawyer who filed the papers, to sue the guy who shot you back in his own home?

I’ve heard it from multiple sources, and this case should make it stick:  Get a lawyer who knows gun laws today.  You also ought to consider getting insurance against criminal and civil litigation for a defensive gun use too, because I’d be willing to bet that your homeowner’s insurance doesn’t cover harm you did to someone willingly, whether or not that harm was done to defend you and yours.  Right now is the time to think about all these things, not when you’re either in jail or the hospital because some goblin decided that what is yours should be his.  Now is also the time to get laws passed that protect us from civil and criminal litigation for justifiably using violence to defend our lives and property, but that is something that you can’t do for yourself today.

I wish Mr. Leone luck and success in his countersuit.  This one seems like a slam dunk, but you never know.  The lesson I get from this is to sue the goblin before he can sue you.

Update – I have messages in with the NRA and SAF to see if they maintain any kind of database on 2A-friendly lawyers.  I’ll post any information I can find.

Also, it looks like The Scratching  Post beat me to the punch on this one.