As a Texas resident and a CHL holder I can tell you that regardless of
what the local police may say, you better check with a lawyer. Civil
law is MUCH nastier in some ways (burden of proof, etc.) than criminal
law or local ordinance.

Texas state law generally allows the use of "deadly force" to avoid
"serious bodily harm" to yourself or another. The odds that the local
law enforcement folks in Texas would gig you for illegally discharging
a firearm in their jurisdiction if you met the first hurdle are
negligible.

The odds that your neighbor will sue for emotional distress,
depravation of companionship (who knows what he did with the dog?),
etc are very high.

Never confuse the law with common sense. (Thomas Payne)

In any case, your "trusty" SKS is a BAD choice. It is not trusty (it's
a HOS), it fires (if it fires without blowing up) an FMJ round that
will put a knitting needle hole in a dog (doesn't stop or kill), and
the house behind it and anything in between. Shotgun, #1 buck, as many
wild dogs on my property (600 AC) can (or could) attest is the
requisite medicine.

WTH is this doing on this NG????? Why am I responding??? Aggggh!


As someone else has pointed out, if your kids are in imminent danger,
legalities fly out the window. In the meantime, the advice to check
with local police sounds good--although I'd tend to approach it along
the lines of "what are my options for dealing with a threatening
animal?" rather than "is it okay for me to just blow it away?" Police
will certainly provide better advice than you will get here, but still
not legal advice--a real lawyer will advise on both criminal and civil
risks.