03-03-2004, 10:51 PM
Ah, yes, we had a semi-similar incident in the UK a few years ago.
Story
Although that's by no means the best page available, there are 39 pages of results on the BBC alone.
Basically, a farmer in an isolated farmhouse who'd been broken into 2 times before heard burglars downstairs.
grabbed his (illegal) shotgun & loaded it.
started to go downstairs, and that moment one of the burglars shone a light in his face, and he opened fire, killing one of the burglars and wounding the other.
Guess who got done?
That's right, the farmer, life imprisonment for muder (which was subsequently reduced to 5 years for manslaughter on appeal), along with 10 years for the wounding of the other guy, and a year for the illegalness of the shotgun).
The wounded burglar gets 3 years for conspiracy to burgle (presumably because he ran when he got shot at, and thus didn't steal anything, couldn't be done for burglary)
too often now, people are getting into trouble for defending themselves, or their property.
Another case was a school teacher who was cleaning out a lincensed rifle that he owned, heard burglars come in, and went o head them off with this, unloaded, not-even-fully-reassembled-yet rifle, and chased them ino the street. Because he took the gun into the street when he chased them, he got taken to court... he was acquitted, but the fact that it even got to court is astonishing.
That coupled with the fact that if a burglar is injured in your home whilst in the process of burgling you, s/he it entitled to sue you, if you were responsible for their injury (you know, like having a loose floorboard which you step over, but they chose to step on). Health & safety can basically be on your back if, after you're burgled, it turns out that your house wasn't a safe place to burgle. Any 'home alone' type antics would land you in serious doggy-do-do, assuming that you were slightly older than Kevin.
"an Enlighman's home is his castle" has just gone out of the window in recent years. Now it's: "an Englishman's home is his castle, so long as he leaved the drawbridge down, portcullis up, and doesn't stop people coming in and taking what they want with any more than that which they use"
umm, yeah, I'm just rambling now, I just get incensed at stories like this.
-Bob :angry:
Story
Although that's by no means the best page available, there are 39 pages of results on the BBC alone.
Basically, a farmer in an isolated farmhouse who'd been broken into 2 times before heard burglars downstairs.
grabbed his (illegal) shotgun & loaded it.
started to go downstairs, and that moment one of the burglars shone a light in his face, and he opened fire, killing one of the burglars and wounding the other.
Guess who got done?
That's right, the farmer, life imprisonment for muder (which was subsequently reduced to 5 years for manslaughter on appeal), along with 10 years for the wounding of the other guy, and a year for the illegalness of the shotgun).
The wounded burglar gets 3 years for conspiracy to burgle (presumably because he ran when he got shot at, and thus didn't steal anything, couldn't be done for burglary)
too often now, people are getting into trouble for defending themselves, or their property.
Another case was a school teacher who was cleaning out a lincensed rifle that he owned, heard burglars come in, and went o head them off with this, unloaded, not-even-fully-reassembled-yet rifle, and chased them ino the street. Because he took the gun into the street when he chased them, he got taken to court... he was acquitted, but the fact that it even got to court is astonishing.
That coupled with the fact that if a burglar is injured in your home whilst in the process of burgling you, s/he it entitled to sue you, if you were responsible for their injury (you know, like having a loose floorboard which you step over, but they chose to step on). Health & safety can basically be on your back if, after you're burgled, it turns out that your house wasn't a safe place to burgle. Any 'home alone' type antics would land you in serious doggy-do-do, assuming that you were slightly older than Kevin.
"an Enlighman's home is his castle" has just gone out of the window in recent years. Now it's: "an Englishman's home is his castle, so long as he leaved the drawbridge down, portcullis up, and doesn't stop people coming in and taking what they want with any more than that which they use"
umm, yeah, I'm just rambling now, I just get incensed at stories like this.
-Bob :angry: