In Plant City, Florida - just southwest of Tampa, a man shot at his girlfriend as she attempted to hack down the door with an ax. He was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. In the followup comments on this article, (followup comments) many people said he shouldn't have been arrested, since he was protecting his home. Here's the legal reason why he was arrested: She was apparently authorized to enter - that is - she was living there too.
To add to the legal reasoning in the previous blog - the "castle doctrine", that is, the right to use deadly force against unauthorized entry into your residence - does not apply to people living in your house. So you can't use deadly force against your wife, or girlfriend, or child, or mother in law, or roomate, if they are living with you and authorized to enter into the house. In those cases, if some household member comes at you with deadly force, you have a duty to retreat.
