Oftentimes conversations about defending your stuff crop up when talking about self-defense. Some advocate the use of lethal force to defend their property while others are completely against it. I think Weerd did a good jobs of puttings the concept of defending your stuff into perspective:
Thug Presents a weapon or implied weapon and in-so-many-words presents this offering point: “Give me your wallet or I will kill you.”
Now lets assume he’s not bluffing. There’s no way to tell, and the antis LOVE to give violent and dangerous people the benefit of the doubt. I think any rational person should see the error in that. I don’t associate with anybody who rob somebody or so much as THREATEN violence to get something they wish to take. The people willing to do something so dastardly are not the best and brightest of the world. They are not the people you should EVER trust, or give the benefit of the doubt.
As a general rule unless its some snot-nosed Ritalin-kid mouthing off, I’m going to assume they do indeed mean to kill me over something as trivial as my wallet.
It’s not about the stuff, it’s about the fact that somebody has a weapon pointed at you and is claiming a willingness to kill you if you don’t surrender whatever they’re after. In this case you’re not shooting the thug over your wallet, you’re shooting him over your life which is the whole point of self-defense. I’ve said this time and time again but it bears repeating, you can’t trust a person’s word when that person has made a threat against your life.
Maybe they will simply run away when you hand over your wallet or maybe they’ll decide to kill you and rid themselves of the only witness to their robbery. Perhaps your assailant is isn’t mentally stable (likely as they’re willing to kill for money) and thus logic can’t be applied. Your attacker may simply not believe you when you toss over you wallet and they want more. The point is you can’t give an assailant the benefit of the doubt because doing so may end up with your face down in a gutter hoping the paramedics arrive before your blood pressure drops to zero.