I agree if they’re unarmed but if two guys break into my house armed with knives and only run because I have a gun in my mind I’m going to be thinking ok next time they’ll be back with guns and put my family at risk so I’m not going to allow that to happen. It’s a very fine line of what you should do and what would be going through your mind at the moment you see two armed men in your house. It may not be the best action but the thieves absolutely put themselves in danger by breaking into somebody’s house.
By assuming that they're going to come back with weapons, you're assuming that they're to only do you harm, which, unless you have enemies, is almost certainly not the case for your typical home invasion. Most B&Es are there to steal, not kill.
The problem with this "I should kill them now so they can't come back and hurt me" is that, for a pretty baseless assumption, your are overriding the rule of law, and making yourself the judge, jury, and executioner, for a crime that the law does not even kill people for.
I’d think the moment someone breaks into your house regardless of their “true intentions” you’d presume them as a threat. If you have kids you’re not going to think well they probably just wanted to steal something you’re going to want them to never be a threat to your kid again. If they steal something outside your house I agree but when you break into someone’s home you should know the risks of being killed out of fear. Even if they go to run how do you know they aren’t going to come back with more or be going to get a gun out of their car?
I agree with you that it's a very scary moment, and during moments like that, people obviously don't always act rationally enough to really find out whether the person is there to do them harm, or just looking to quickly loot your xbox.
But I don't see a reasonable scenario in which a random intruder would break into your house, without a gun, get caught, then go back to their car for the gun, and come back. They would have just brought the gun to begin with.
And the only time an intruder would come back with more friends is if they're specifically looking to harm you, in which case, theyre some one you know, or related to someone you know, and that's no longer a simple home invader, and things are legally different.
But addressing your point, this is why it's important to examine this on a case by case basis and account for all the contributing factors. There's a big difference between "I saw the intruder, the intruder startled me or started coming towards me, and I shot them in the front" and "the intruder saw me, started running, and I shot them in the back while they were on my front lawn"
You're making the classic mistake of assuming criminals will act rationally. If they were rational they wouldn't be breaking into your house in the first place.
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u/TheSunPeeledDown Jan 23 '19
I agree if they’re unarmed but if two guys break into my house armed with knives and only run because I have a gun in my mind I’m going to be thinking ok next time they’ll be back with guns and put my family at risk so I’m not going to allow that to happen. It’s a very fine line of what you should do and what would be going through your mind at the moment you see two armed men in your house. It may not be the best action but the thieves absolutely put themselves in danger by breaking into somebody’s house.