When No Right of Self-Defense is Recognized

When the right of self-defense isn’t recognized stories like this start cropping up:

The man is believed to have grabbed a legally owned gun after they were disturbed by the break-in early yesterday.

He is understood to have fired at the intruders who then fled the isolated house at Melton Mowbray, Leics, before calling the police.

Minutes later, an ambulance was called to treat a man with gunshot injuries nearby. It is understood that call was made by one of the suspected burglars.

The arrested man’s mother said: “This is not the first time they have been broken into.

“They have been robbed three or four times. One of them was quite nasty.

In the United Kingdom self-defense often goes unrecognized by the state, which leaves individuals at a severe disadvantage when facing aggressors. Why should a man be put into a cage for shooting would-be burglars? In such situations home owners can’t know the intent of apparent burglars. Are they breaking into the home merely to take stuff or are they breaking in to hurt or kill somebody living there? The only certainty in such situations is that the people breaking into the home don’t have noble intentions.

Arresting home owners who defend themselves is nothing more than a form of victim blaming. Instead of arresting the aggressors the state arrests the victims, which sets a precedence that says home owners should wait until apparent burglars caused actual bodily harm before retaliating. Of course by that time the home owner would be dead or mortally wounded, but the state doesn’t care about individuals it only cares about power.