The Liberal Gun Club Forum

VAN BUREN, Maine — A Van Buren man died Thursday night from a gunshot wound he received when his homemade security device discharged accidentally, Van Buren Police said. Officers were sent to a residence on St. Francis Avenue where a man had reported to police that he had been shot.

Officer Chandler Madore accompanied by the Van Buren Ambulance Service and Border Patrol arrived on scene in the early evening of Nov. 28, according to a Facebook post from the department. “Regretfully, Mr. Cyr succumbed to the injuries he sustained from the gunshot,” the post read.

Officers discovered that Cyr had outfitted his house with homemade security devices including a handgun rigged to fire should anyone come through the front door. Police found other unknown devices which alarmed investigators and prompted them to contact the Maine State Police Bomb Squad.

After an “extensive” investigation the post said lasted into the early hours of the morning, investigators determined the gunshot wound was the result of one of Cyr’s homemade devices, which had accidentally discharged.

There have been other cases of booby-trapped homes in the US.

In February, a team of real estate investors walking through a home they had bought in Philadelphia discovered that a staircase had been rigged with string which, if tripped, would have triggered a swinging knife.

In September last year, a man in Illinois was killed when he opened a neighbour's shed that had been rigged to fire a shotgun. William Wasmund, 48, was found guilty this September of first-degree murder and aggravated battery.

And in October last year a man in Oregon was charged after fortifying his home "like a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark". FBI agents found a circular hot tub linked up to a tripwire, a fortified front door, animal traps and a wheelchair rigged with a shotgun that went off, hitting an agent in the leg.

Is it legal to booby trap your home in the US? The definition of booby trap is a concealed or camouflaged device that can cause bodily injury when triggered. It is illegal to set up devices in your home to protect it from intruders, if those devices can cause harm.

The legal argument is that life is more valued than property and that the devices have no means of preventing accidental harm or distinguishing between targets. Even if the trap targets a criminal, the trap-setter, though having the right to protect their home, has no right to determine the punishment.

Injury can lead to lawsuits. In the 1971 case of Katko v. Briney, in Iowa, two homeowners were held liable for injuries caused by their spring-loaded shotgun to a trespasser intent on stealing from a vacant property. The court ruled the deadly force was not reasonable and awarded the plaintiff $30,000 (£23,000) in damages.