Imagine this: A neighborhood decides to have a neighborhood yard sale. The neighbors take everything out into their yards the night before the yard sale so that it is ready for the early morning shoppers. One of the neighbors, a man of about sixty years, decides to sleep in his car to keep watch over the items for sale. This man has a concealed carry license and no criminal history whatsoever.
While sitting in his car another car pulls into his neighborhood around midnight and flashes its lights. The elderly man decides to investigate. He has his gun on his hip, holstered. He approaches the car and begins questioning the occupants, who he discovers are two teenage girls. While holding his gun on his hip, he asks them what they are doing and after discovering that they were simply waiting for their friend to arrive, they leave and he returns to his car.
The girls tell their parents who advise them to call the cops, which they do. The cops charge the elderly man with threatening with a dangerous weapon.
The crime of threatening with a dangerous weapon is met when someone “draws or exhibits a dangerous weapon in an angry and threatening manner or unlawfully uses a dangerous weapon in a fight or quarrel.”
Should the man protecting the neighborhood goods as described above be considered a criminal? Is he guilty of threatening those girls with a dangerous weapon? Probably not, but prosecutors in Utah have been known to bring these very charges against someone as law abiding as the man described above. In fact, prosecutors would have you believe that if you own a gun and get in an argument you should be prosecuted for this crime.
If you are facing charges for threatening with a dangerous weapon call our violent crimes defense lawyers at 801-413-1753 for a free consultation.