Burglar Rights

I agree with the rest of you, if someone breaks in your house you should should be able to defend yourself. If someone boroke into my house I'd give the burglar a chance to surrender so I can have the cops pick him up. If he's trying to escape empty handed I won't shoot but if he takes something or tries to attack me I'll shoot him in the leg of something rather than shoot to kill and if he wants to sue I'll say he tried to attack me and claim self defense. So it's basically surrender or get arrowed with me, I don't have much sympathy for burglars since we got burglarized once when I was a kid but I will give the bastard a chance to surrender so he can have fun holding on to his soap in jail.

Here's an anecdote about burglars: a few summers ago, one of my friends parents where away for the weekend and he was home alone. He heard some noise outside so he went to check it out and there was a pickup parked in the driveway and he saw the door of the shed open and he knew right away it was thieves since that door is always locked. He went inside to get his bow, went backoutside and started shooting in the shed. He heard voices in the shed say "oh #" and someone screem. He then saw two guys run out of the shed with one of them looking like his leg was hurt. They got away in the truck.

He told his paent about what had happened but they found it quite wierd thatnothing was missing, he never told them about shooting at them. A few months later he was supposed to pick me up at my house but when he got there he looked pumped up with adrenaline and he told me someone tried to run him off the road, I didn't really believed his story because he didn't want to tell his parents or go to the cops. It hapenned again a few times over the nexr two months, same white Dodge Shadow every time. He put two and two together when on one occasion the was also a pickup involved, the same he saw the burglars with. I didn't really believe his story untill one night I was in the car with him when he got chassed by that car. One night he came to my house with a big smile on his face: he told me that HE ran the bastard of the road, he had scratched on his bumber to prove it. If that wasn't enough, a few days later we hadpicked up his mom from work and she wanted to stop at the fish market and guess what we say in the parking lot, a car fitting the description of the one that tried to run him of the road with some major rear end damage. He never had any trouble with those people again. He showed them not to mess with him.

The moral of this story you ask? If you are going to fight back agains burglars, make sure they don't get away because they might come back for revenge.



[Edited on 18-4-2004 by Ranger]

Any burglar trying that in my house will find himself crawling down the road with a nice shiny katana stuffed up his arse.

Originally posted by Narnia
I think it is ridiculous that the victim has less rights than the offender!

Also, does anyone remember that case in NY where a guy on the subway, in the early 90's, was jumped by a gang and he shot a few of them and was sued for millions of dollars for disabling one of the perpetrators. Needless to say, the victim of the crime ended up losing the law suit for millions of dollars. Makes absolutely no sense to me.

The case you are refering to is the Bernard Goetz shooting of 1984. (I remember it happening when I was a kid) 20 years ago! I am getting old!

Here is a link to the actual case.

The shooting and ensuing trials still fuel debate to this day.

That being said, NYC was alot different back in those days.


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[Edited on 18-4-2004 by Facefirst]

When I was younger, my family had just moved to the US and we lived with my grandparents in a rougher neighborhood in Jersey. My grandfather grew up most of his life lifting weights, so he's not exactly your typical grandpa. He can outlift most people. Imagine Arnold, except a a little shorter and bigger. Anyways, I'm laying in my bed and I hear rustling in the living room. I figure it's my grandfather just getting a drink or something. Next thing I know, I hear yelling and glass breaking. My grandfather happened to be sleeping on the couch when the burglar walked in, and he got up and wrestled the guy. He ended up picking the guy up and throwing him through the window. Unfortunately the guy got away, but we were never bothered again.

I don't understand why these kinds of things are even an issue. Your home is your home. The burglar has no reason to be there.

My girlfriend and I are looking into moving to Orlando after we graduate. For the first time we'll live in a house together. We've had an apartment for a while. I can guarantee you though that if any burglar decides to make my home his target, he shall not walk out.

Luckily, I have a nice history in computers. Something I'm working on right now is little robot sentries. They will be placed at certain points around the house and outside. If they sense trouble, they inform me and I do as I see fit.

I'm working on an entry for next years DARPA Grand Challenge, so I've had to stop working on them for now. But hopefully by they time we move out there I'll have my prototype built.

I am generally OK with the tight restrictions on guns in the UK but as more criminals get them, law abiding citizens should be able to defend themselves from these criminals. I'm not sure what letting people have guns would be like though. People may be smart enough to use them just for defending their homes or may start carrying them around everywhere. It is a very complex issue but I believe Britain will have to decide sometime as violent crime is on the increase and will be hard to combat as it is.

in the uk, you do have the right to shoot a burglar if you do so in self-defence. the central legal issue is that you have to use 'legitimate force', rather than, as in the tony martin case, shoot an unarmed teenager in the back as he is running away.

as someone else posted, the tony martin case is not the perfect case study for the issue (although the tabloid media have made it just that). in fact, the main reason why his conviction was reduced to manslaughter was that it was shown that he was not entirely sane.

last time i heard, he was considering a career in politics.

Originally posted by bolshevik
in the uk, you do have the right to shoot a burglar if you do so in self-defence. the central legal issue is that you have to use 'legitimate force', rather than, as in the tony martin case, shoot an unarmed teenager in the back as he is running away.

as someone else posted, the tony martin case is not the perfect case study for the issue (although the tabloid media have made it just that). in fact, the main reason why his conviction was reduced to manslaughter was that it was shown that he was not entirely sane.

last time i heard, he was considering a career in politics.

Yeah but what would an ordinary person shoot them with if they were pointing a gun or knife at you

ah yes self-defence in the UK. You have to prove strongly that your life was in danger and had to act quick. If someone broke in your home and you attacked them in defence, you most only hit them once and make sure its a hard blow. If you hit the person and then hit them again to make sure,then your breaking the law. UK law is confussing

Originally posted by bolshevik
in the uk, you do have the right to shoot a burglar if you do so in self-defence. the central legal issue is that you have to use 'legitimate force', rather than, as in the tony martin case, shoot an unarmed teenager in the back as he is running away.

The debate here in the US is: Do you need an AK47/AR15 that can easily be converted to fully automatic or a 12 gauge shotgun to defend your home? I have nothing against assault rifles, but I am definitely for much tighter restrictions.



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Originally posted by infinite
ah yes self-defence in the UK. You have to prove strongly that your life was in danger and had to act quick. If someone broke in your home and you attacked them in defence, you most only hit them once and make sure its a hard blow. If you hit the person and then hit them again to make sure,then your breaking the law. UK law is confussing

yes, the problem with the law is that there are no definitive terms: its just a huge grey area. also, if youre woken up in the early hours and confronted with an intruder, your idea of legitimate force will be entirely different than it would under normal circumstances.

Originally posted by bolshevik
yes, the problem with the law is that there are no definitive terms: its just a huge grey area. also, if youre woken up in the early hours and confronted with an intruder, your idea of legitimate force will be entirely different than it would under normal circumstances.

Wow. That is crazy. How do you rightly judge "legitimate force" then? I mean, one strong blow to the head with a Cricket bat? Or is it a blast from a shotgun? Which is more legitimate?

That is confusing to me, but then again, I am Amer-ikan.. lots of things confuse me


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Originally posted by Facefirst

Originally posted by bolshevik
yes, the problem with the law is that there are no definitive terms: its just a huge grey area. also, if youre woken up in the early hours and confronted with an intruder, your idea of legitimate force will be entirely different than it would under normal circumstances.

Wow. That is crazy. How do you rightly judge "legitimate force" then? I mean, one strong blow to the head with a Cricket bat? Or is it a blast from a shotgun? Which is more legitimate?

That is confusing to me, but then again, I am Amer-ikan.. lots of things confuse me

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It is confusing for others too. I think people should be able to use a little more force than now (which in theory should be just enough to guarantee the safety of them or their property) but wouldn't like any rules like they have to be inside the house

Whine, whine whine. Canadian law is uberstrict. Freakish firearm restrictions, as well as the fact that unless you can prove you were in emminent danger of losing your life...as in the guy had his weapon in high ready and it was seen by a person or two, you can't kill them. Even if they're burglarizing your house. Even if they're stealing your car. You do, it's like instant manslaughter. The onyl reason I stay is the scenery, m'self... I'm in cottage country at the moment. As soon as I can really afford it, I'm moving to Texas or something. I've alreayd got a blade or two to stick in folks who want to jack my computer, but that's it. Crazy restrictions up here.

DE