fbc said:
martineb72 said:
peter3hg2 said:
And so on and so on.
Shooting someone who is, for example, robbing your house is no better than lynching. You are removing the judge and jury and making the decision about someone elses life on your own.
To me that is totally wrong and you should be put in prison for killing a burglar.
Just my opinion.
Shooting someone in your home isn't lynching, it is defending yourself. You don't generally have the luxury of waiting around to find out what the intruder plans to do. If they came to kill or rape, it is your right and duty to protect yourself. And don't think it requires an intruder to have a gun to come kill or rape someone, it could be carried out just as easily with a kitchen knife.
Martin
Do you honestly believe it's okay to kill someone just because they've broken into your house and may in fact no pose a threat to you at all? You can use reasonable force to defend yourself, shooting someone dead because they've got your VCR in their hands isn't reasonable. If however they're coming at you with a weapon that's a different matter.
You said it yourself:
martineb72 said:
If they came to kill or rape, it is your right and duty to protect yourself
But...
martineb72 said:
You don't generally have the luxury of waiting around to find out what the intruder plans to do
So if you don't have the luxury of waiting to find out what their intentions are, what you supposed to do? Shoot them and hope your assumption was correct and that you haven't just shot dead some guy who wanted your tv? And if they were just after your tv, do you believe you should be punished for your actions? I mean after all, the intruder wasn't there to kill or rape, so there goes your "right and duty to protect yourself". And in a blink of an eye, you've ruined two lives.
As for killing someone as easily with a knife or a blunt object - no, it's much much easier and quicker to kill someone with a gun, which is part of the problem. With a gun you have much less of a chance to think about your actions.
Even though I understand what you're saying and respect your opinion on this, I don't agree completely.
Let me explain with a hypothetical scenario:
Let's take B. a burglar and Mr X.
B. decides to break into Mr X' house and steal, let's say his TV.
As a human being B. should realise that what he's about to do is 1)illegal, 2)immoral, 3)just plain wrong. No matter what, there is no justification for breaking into someone's house and taking their property.
So, here we are. B. is inside Mr X's house, he hears a noise and goes to check it out. Mr X, being the owner of some sort of gun/rifle, arms himself with it as he goes downstairs.
Mr X sees B. and takes upon himself the right to defend himself and fires.
Mr X did not intend to mortally wound B, however B dies shortly after the police arrives.
Was it wrong of B. to break into Mr X's house and steal his stuff? Yes.
Did he deserve to be punished for it? Yes.
Did he deserve to die for it? No.
However, the circumstances created by B. himself did lead to his unfortunate fate.
Was it wrong of Mr X to kill B? Yes.
Was it wrong of Mr X to shoot B? (thus defending himself) No.
Would Mr X have killed, or even shot at, B. if B. had not taken it upon himself to break into Mr X's house? No.
Should Mr X therefore be punished for the act of killing B? No.
Allthough the death of B. is unfortunate, he did kind of bring it upon himself. He forced Mr X into a situation which lead to his own demise.
It would not be fair to punish Mr X, simply because Mr X had nothing to do with creating the situation, this was entirely done by B.
See where I'm going with this?
Should people be allowed to shoot at anything that moves? Of course not.
But should people be punished because they shot a burglar? I don't think so.