{"id":2889,"date":"2008-07-17T06:55:42","date_gmt":"2008-07-17T11:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2889"},"modified":"2008-07-17T06:55:42","modified_gmt":"2008-07-17T11:55:42","slug":"its-a-start-sort-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2889","title":{"rendered":"It’s A Start. Sort Of."},"content":{"rendered":"

The American gun control movement has looked at the UK, among others, as a living demonstration of the benefits of a soft-on-criminals approach to crime, including a near-total civilian gun ban.<\/p>\n

And, as UK violent crime rates zoomed even with and beyond US rates, it might help explain why US gun control efforts have abated for the moment.<\/p>\n

But I digress.<\/p>\n

One of the worst aspects of British law in recent years is a disposition to punish homeowners for injuring burgars and robbers; in a few high-profile cases, citizens have been prosecuted and jailed for attacking burglars and robbers.<\/p>\n

In the act.<\/p>\n

On their own property.<\/p>\n

That might be changing.\u00a0 Sort of<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They will be able to use force against criminals who break into their homes or attack them in the street without worrying that “heat of the moment\u201d misjudgements could see them brought before the courts.<\/p>\n

Under new laws police and prosecutors will have to assess a person\u2019s actions based on the person\u2019s situation “as they saw it at the time\u201d even if in hindsight it could be seen as unreasonable.<\/p>\n

For example, homeowners would be able stab or shoot a burglar if confronted or tackle them and use force to detain them until police arrive. Muggers could be legally punched and beaten in the street or have their own weapons used against them.<\/p>\n

However, attacking a fleeing criminal with a weapon is not permitted nor is lying in wait to ambush them.<\/p>\n

The new laws follow a growing public campaign for people to be given the right to defend themselves and their own homes in the wake of a number of high profile cases.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not an academic problem:<\/p>\n

In 2000, Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer, was sent to prison for manslaughter for shooting an intruder in his home.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Tony Singh, a shopkeeper, found himself facing a murder charge after he defended himself against an armed robber who tried to steal his takings. During the struggle the robber received a single fatal stab wound to the heart with his own knife.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There seems to be at least some recognition that self-defense is both a human instinct and not necessarily something that happens with a lot of legalistic intellectual parsing:<\/p>\n

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, said that people would be protected legally if they defend themselves “instinctively\u201d; they fear for their own safety or that of others; and the level of force used is not excessive or disproportionate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a start.<\/p>\n

If only the Minnesota legislature<\/a> could do so well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American gun control movement has looked at the UK, among others, as a living demonstration of the benefits of a soft-on-criminals approach to crime, including a near-total civilian gun ban. And, as UK violent crime rates zoomed even with and beyond US rates, it might help explain why US gun control efforts have abated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-victim-disarmament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}