Spring-gun
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A spring-gun is a gun, often a shotgun, rigged to fire when a string or other triggering device is tripped by contact of sufficient force to "spring" the trigger so that anyone stumbling over or treading on them would discharge it and wound himself. They were formerly used as booby traps against poachers and trespassers. Since 1827, spring-guns and all man-traps are illegal in England, except within a house between sunset and sunrise as a protection against burglars. Spring-guns are sometimes used to trap animals.
From Killing or Wounding to Protect a Property Interest, Richard A. Posner: "Spring-guns were something of a cause célèbre in early nineteenth-century England, but since that time the reported cases have been few."
Although there have been "few" reported cases, there have been several over the 20th century. The obvious implication is that spring-guns are still in use today, especially in circumstances where property of high value is in a remote location that makes other forms of securing it unreasonably difficult to effect.
In the USA, most spring guns are loaded with non-lethal caliber or shot to avoid liability arising from the use of deadly force in protection of a property interest. Since it is legal under US law to use non-deadly force to remove a trespasser or prevent the unjust removal of chattel property from real estate property, the use of a spring-gun that could do no more than wound or incapacitate a criminal is also theoretically legal. Posting clear and unmistakeable warning signs as well as making entry to spring-gun guarded premises difficult for innocent persons, such as high walls, fences and natural obstacles, are significant ways to reduce potential tort liability arising from the spring-gun's wounding of a careless or criminal intruder. Important US lawsuits regarding trespassers wounded by spring-guns include Katko v. Briney. Bird v. Holbrook is an 1825 English case also of great relevance, where a spring-gun set to protect a tulip garden injured a trespasser who was recovering a stray bird [1]. The man who set the spring-gun was liable for the damage caused.
Spring guns have appeared in the video games Max Payne and Police Quest II.
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- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
