Wow, I thought this kind of thing was done away with years ago

[Delc]

Most recent example in my area is the case of a man charged with assault after firing a shotgun at ATV riders attempting to run him over. Can't get hold of the articles themselves (it was in our local news for several days) because anyone carrying the story wants a fee for access to news more than a day old.

The gist of the story is that several ATV-riding hooligans were rampaging over this guy's private property on a regular basis at all hours, despite all efforts to get them to leave. The man eventually confronted them, and they attempted to kill him by means of the hundreds of pounds of steel each was riding on. He fired a shotgun in the air, which accomplished nothing - the assault continued. The gun fired again, this time hitting one of the riders and causing minor injury. They backed off, finally - and the homeowner found himself in court on assault charges while his assailants got off scot-free.

That would probably fall under escalating the violence.