It's OK to knife a burglar in the UK

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While what Montresor says is correct (that there are incidents of people breaking into a home a beating the crap out of the occupants before robbing it), the vast majority of home burglaries occur when you aren't home. Burglars aren't idiots, and for the most part, they'd prefer not having the risk of breaking into a home, having the home owner wake up, and getting the drop on them. Afterall, you know your home a lot better than they do, especially in the dark, and where you can hide for an ambush.

That said, since there is a far greater chance that you won't be home than you will be at the time of the burgary, it almost defeats the purpose of keeping a gun in the house for home protection. If you're on vacation a whole lot of good that gun sitting in your house will do you.

I don't own a gun, but I do have a security system on the house. Upon entering the house it starts beeping. You have one minute to disarm it, or it automatically sends a message to the security company - and the alarm goes off full blast at that point. The beeping itself is pretty loud - there's no way you'd sleep through it. After minute is up the security company calls your house to see if you need assistance. If they don't get an answer they call police. If you pick up the phone you can give them your PIN, at which point they'll deactivate the alarm and they won't call police. If the burglar has entered your house, you're there, and they make you pick up the phone (in hopes that you'll tell the security company everything is fine and it's a false alarm) there's an alternate PIN you can give them that will cause them to shut the alarm off (to make the burglar THINK you told them it's OK, but that they'll still call the police and send them out immediately.

 

If someone did break into your home, there's a good chance you wont wake up anyway, and even if you did, you would be drowsy. The best way to protect yourself and you family is to properly protect your home in the first place.

 

Not with an alarm system. I could see if you're in a really deep sleep you may not hear the fairly loud beeping of when the person first opens your door. (I tend to hear it, because it sounds a lot like an alarm clock, which I'm conditioned to respond to.) Of course, the would-be burglar would be so close to the alarm system that he'd definitely hear it and it might just scare him away. However, when the full alarm sounds one-minute later, you'd have to be practically deaf to not wake up.

 

Alarms are still a rareity, eventhough they are relatively inexpensive today.

 

Guns are the great equalizer for women, elderly, and the vast majority of geeks. They are the only thing that enable them to have a chance against a teenage/twenties male with the intent to do them great harm.

 

As I said, in these circumstances there isnt anything you can do, obviously the old couple had no time to react in much the same way you may have no time to react if robbers start beating the crap out of you while your still in bed, the best defence is to properly protect your home and prevent the robbers entering, they generally pick easy targets, open windows, single pane windows, rotten doors or frames, no security lighting, no alarm, no animals and no CCTV, properties which are hidden from view are also good targets. Sometimes robberies are not spur of the moment, they may have watched a property for some time, know who lives there and even have a layout of the property.

With regards to an intruder in your home and you are awake and alert, I dont think anyone has said not to defend youself if you have to, I have said to pick your fights, if you can, get everyone into one room and barricade the door until help arrives, chances are if they are pottering around downstairs and have made enough noise to wake you, they are also aware of this and may preempt your trip downstairs to deal with them. Dont do anythign stupid, by all means protect your family if they venture up towards your bedrooms, but dont wander downstairs and get youself gutted like a fish for the sake of a few easily replaceable gadgets.

 

Have a "good" chance, at least. Generally, I agree, but it certainly helps if the gun owner knows what s/he's doing with that weapon.

Then again, I do presume the majority of gun owners will likely spend at least some time on the shooting range. It would be quite foolish to own a firearm and not spend a modicum of time training how to use it.

 

I've noted something similar in past threads on this topic. If someone enters your home with the knowledge that it is occupied, you've got a major problem. First of all, if they were only there to rob you, they could have easily shown up when you weren't there. Obviously, they are there not just for what you own but for you as well. They also, it would seem, have a plan on how to deal with you. The reason that scenario is much scarier is a weapon may not even help you - there's a good chance the intruder came armed as well, as he was expecting a confrontation.

 

Which is all the more reason to unload on their ass before they have a chance to do the same to you. If they are entering your home while you are there, there are not a mere burglar. OR if they are, they are freaking morons.

 

Im just picturing the scene from the police academy film where Tackleberry nearly shoots his father in the dark.

 

Hmm, I wonder how often the cops hear that - "I didn't mean to shoot my husband, officer! I heard scratching at the door, then steps and I thought it was a burglar! Yes, the damn pig was drunk as f..k again and stank of female perfume, but what does that have to do with anything?"

 

There will always be circumstances that are outside the box. Wife shooting husband and claiming it was a burglar obviously requires investigation from the police. But complete stranger dressed in black and ski mask with weapon in one hand and my property in another is a completely different scenario.

 

Im not on about dodgy situations, Im on about that age old statistic that you are more likely to shoot a family member than you are an intruder.

 

That is an extremely valid and cogent point -- you should make sure that an intruder is actually an intruder and not your son coming home for a surprise visit from college.

Once they are known to be criminals, though, I say kill them. It's the only way you are ensured of justice these days. Otherwise, by the time it's all said and done, our liberal courts will have YOU up on charges of racism for not cheerfully giving away your money, jewelry, electronics, and children to the poor underprivileged <insert whatever "disadvantaged" group you want here> who was robbing you.

 

so... what if they are armed? they see a shadow coming down the stairs and blow your head off?

I mean, at the end of the day, you dont bring a knife to a possible gun fight

 

I would agree with the earlier comments made that the best thing to do is keep your house secure -- deadbolts, chains, locks on the windows, alarm systems, etc. It is my understanding that such precautions deter many opportunistic criminals.

But a determined criminal can enter if he really is motivated to do so. If he does, then I believe homeowners have the right to defend themselves. They should do it intelligently, of course, but in terms of rights, I have no problem saying that the homeowner is totally within his rights to take the bastard down if it can be done safely. But even though it increases risk, I believe that some effort to make sure that it's really a criminal are in order. As Shoshino mentioned, family members can get shot by accident by a ramped up homeowner -- it's happened before.

 

Riight, because minorities are so underrepresented in jail, of course the courts shield them. I have to say, you are becoming inordinately bitter about it. Did you get slapped with a discrimination suit or something?

 

I think most of those could be prevented if the homeowner wasn't over-zealous with his gun use. Look, you know how many members are in your family, and you should know how many of them are or are not in the house when you go to sleep. For most people, the list includes you, your significant other, and your kid(s) if you have any. At the very least, you should know which ones aren't there, and which ones have a key to let themselves in. Presuming you know that one or more members of your household is not home, when you hear the door open, you should definitely not be of the mindset "Shoot first, ask questions later."

Unfortunately Shoshino is completely right. You are much more likely to be the victim of a accidental shooting if there is a gun in your house than you are to ever shoot someone who breaks in. That said, I think there is one statistic that is hard to track that offers some conterweight to the argument. You cannot possibly know how many crimes are prevented by having a gun in your house. That doesn't completely balance off the chance of an accidental shooting, but you cannot know how many failed robbies occur (or how many would-be criminal pick a different target) if you have a gun in your house.

 

No one has slapped me with a suit. I just am very tired of the lack and common sense that our system shows on a regular basis.