Trespassing in the US.
 

I am bit confused about what is considered trespassing in the US. In most European country's trespassing is enforced mildly. And woods, lakes and so on is considered a place where the public is allowed. An owner of a forest can not usually hinder any one from entering. And i have never heard about a private lake.

Her is the Youtube clip that puzzles me :

If you own any land, and anyone you dont want on that land enters, its trespassing. be it a patch of woods, a lake, a field, whatever.

one time i was kindly told by a bullet to leave someones cow field. didnt get shot, just heard the pop and the round whiz by.

a buddy of mine, on the other hand, has a .22 round lodged in his shinbone. he was shot trespassing.

edit: your video desplays a "Embedding disabled by request" message.

Private lakes and forests have no trespassing signs to keep people from hunting all the animals on their lands and to keep them from fishing the lakes dry. Also, If someone gets injured while trespassing on your property, you could be sued by them.

Around here, people will also grow marijuana and put meth labs on other people's private property just because it's a hidden place in the middle of nowhere.

It's really all about protecting yourself because if nobody gets on your land, they can't do anything that gets you into trouble.


To add to SSJ's post, It is actually illegal to shoot a trespasser. It is a mild offense and most of the time you'll only get a warning. I don't know anyone that's gotten in trouble for trespassing that wasn't actually doing something they weren't supposed to. I do however know a few people that's had boat and fishing equipment impounded and given a mean fine when they got caught by a game warden fishing on private property.

I had a roommate that got shot by a .12ga rock salt shell. He had the scars to prove it. He was on a farmer's land at night. It could have been worse - it could have been a .12ga slug and blown his shoulder off :)

It used to be legal to shoot a trespasser at night in Texas. I don't think it is now, unless they show intent to commit bodily harm to you or those you are defending.

Well you can't do any hunting, cut down trees or any other activity that disrupts the land owner in hes business. But let's say that you want to go jogging or take pictures in the forest or other harmless activity's, you can do so. Must be sad for those who live miles of way from yellow stone or Canada and just want to show their kids how nature looks like.

just dont go into fenced off pieces of land or land with signs posted and you're fine. i go deep into the woods all the time.

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yup. i my pal didnt see who did the shooting (although its sort of obvious who it was) and had no idea who owned the land. theres that whole thing about having to be able to prove it.

Ok, And if you happened to cross some sort of a fence by accident (in the forest) you don't have to be afraid of being shoot? The land owner have to call the cops not be one?

It's hard to cross a fence by accident, especially if the land owner is serious about his no trespassing policy. I used to trespass a LOT and I've never had a really bad experience with a land owner. I've ran into quite a few and just being honest and up front about why you're there is enough to ease their concerns. Most just said be careful. I got asked to leave a few times because it was "too dangerous" or they had expensive equipment or any of the other excuses they use to politely ask you to leave.

The odds of getting shot is REALLY low, hell seeing the land owner deep in the woods isn't exactly common. I tried to find some statistic on it but could only find 1 or 2 articles about an incident.

In Canada, land owners have to post No Trespassing signs every so many feet (can't remember the number) along the borders of their property and aren't allowed to shoot anyone. If the private property borders water, anyone is allowed to be on the shore as long as they stay below the high tide mark.

what reese said.

i've been asked to get off of property lots, and shot at once. i used to use other people land as shortcuts all the time. i moved to Georgia and found myself running from pissed off, armed farmer for the first time.

and yeah, its hard hard to cross a fence by accident. even if its damaged or downed you can still see the barbed wire just fine.

I would say it's impossible to cross a fence by accident.

I used to do a lot of off-trail running on US Forestry Service land that bordered private property. In a lot of cases there were no fences to mark the property lines. In those cases, I just kept going, oblivious. That was only a problem once, and we were probably in the wrong.

But if someone has taken the time and expense to put up a fence, they did it for a reason, and I don't see any reason why someone without permission shouldn't accept that. If they don't, they do so at their own risk since sometimes fences are there to keep people away from dangerous areas, like hunting clubs or dangerous ground (caves, sinkholes, etc.

One of the primary reasons that the 13 Colonies revolted against the British was property rights. That's a concept near and dear to most American hearts.

We have the same thing around here. I believe its every 100'.
In my area, you do run the risk of getting shot but only because there are quite a few private gun ranges in the woods.

This time of year there are a lot of hunters in the woods, but I've never had any problems. I usually go to city, state, or national parks though.

And in the city you should call the police if someone is doing something that you have a problem with. If they try to break into your house or car, then you are allowed to shoot them in most states.

stay off unless invited

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...willbeshot.jpg

No. In SOME states you are allowed to use deadly force to defend property. In MOST states, you are not allowed to use deadly force to defend property, you are only allowed to use deadly force to defend people. In many states, even if somebody kicks your front door in, it is illegal to use deadly force.

Trespassing is a BAD, stupid, asinine idea. As others have noted, it's just about impossible to accidentally cross a fence, especially 3-5 strands of sometimes electrified barbed-wire, or 3 rows of split-rails. If somebody comes onto a piece of land and ignores the barbed-wire fences and the big yellow signs every 50 feet, they aren't there to take pictures. They're there because they think they can get something (money, gasoline, equipment, livestock, deer) that makes it worth the very real risk of being arrested, shot, or knawed upon by the landowner's dogs. They're there because they think they somehow have the right to come onto someone else's land without their permission, steal their stuff of poach their game (usually the latter) and leave them the mess. Around here, the second-most common cause of trespassing is jackass White Trash putting pot farms or Meth labs on somebody else's land...again, in order to leave them the mess. And you haven't seen a mess until you seen and smelt what gets left behind from a Meth operation. Soil rendered useless clean down to the bedrock, water contaminated even worse, and if the thing ever burns the fallout will turn everything for 500 yards downwind into a HazMat site. Sometimes you get dipshits who break onto other people's land to ride 4-wheelers without making a mess of their own property...the bad part is that most of these dipshits are allegedly adults! In any case, trespassing in the backwoods of the US isn't like going rambling in Yorkshire: nobody's there for the views. People who want views and nature go to State and National parks; there are hundreds of them, everywhere. People trespass in the backwoods because they want to screw you, hard and dry.

I have neither sympathy nor time to waste on poachers and thieves. Anybody who crosses fences and ignores signs like that has nothing good in mind.

It varies from state to state, but justification for lethal force is usually along the lines of "to prevent death or serious bodily harm" or "to prevent or interrupt the commission of a felony." In most states, a reasonable belief that the trespasser posed a real threat to you or to others is enough, but in the end it depends on where the DA or prosecutor stands on gun ownership and self defense and how well each side does in jury selection. Being innocent doesn't save you from legal fees unless you're in Washington state, where being acquitted of charges related to self defense comes with the state reimbursing you.

Back to the OP, it's not like Yellowstone and Canada are our only nature getaways. In fact, we don't own Canada yet, so we have to keep off except for when they're home on the weekends and allow us to fish in the pond. Kansas was the last state not to have a national park, which it now has. And every state has state parks. Trees, lakes, camping, etc.

I grew up on an 18 acre ranch with two man made ponds. We allowed people to fish them freely. The only time we (I) had trouble is when a cousin and I fished late at night on the side of the pond closest to our neighbor. He shot air rifle warning shots into the water. Which we owned. Little men who let their guns speak for them aren't really the norm in American society, but they certainly do stand out.

Here in Texas, we are allowed to shoot trespassers. I don't know the exact law, but if you tell someone to get off your land or your property, you are legally allowed to shoot them. It's an alright law if you ask me.
Some guy got in deep shit here when he saw some one breaking into his neighbor's house, so he called the cops and told them he was going to shoot the burglars. The dispatcher told him to stay in his house, but he went out and shot the guy anyway. If I remember right, he wasn't punished at all.

On one hand, this sounds like laws sixth graders invent. On the other hand, it's Texas.

So, very believable.

my friend Steph says you have to tell them three times to get off of your property.

It's possible that I'm misunderstanding, but I was under the impression that the Castle doctrine applied only to individuals illegally attempting to gain access to one's home, where one might reasonably assume an intent to cause grievous harm.

In other words, a couple of high school kids cutting across farmer Brown's field aren't covered.