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Comment by orbital-decay

15 hours ago

This is a very... US comment to make.

There have been cases in the US where homeowners shot cops dead who were in the process of unexpectedly raiding their home, because the homeowner had no idea they were cops and not home invasion robbers; and in some cases have been acquitted of murder charges by juries for this.

I'd personally like to see the laws protecting this strengthened, to make sure that cops aren't charging unannounced into peoples' homes and then charging the homeowner with murder when they react with reasonable gun violence in self-defense.

  • My thought on this is that it's basically not legal to protect your home/family with force because of this. It's impossible to know if someone breaking in is a cop or not, and at 3AM with glass breaking and a group of people claiming to be cops, but aren't, how are you supposed to know? You basically never can. So either you risk going to prison for the rest of your life when it's actually a cop, or you do absolutely nothing and let your family get harmed/your home burgled.

  • I would much prefer a society where all homeowners and cops don't carry guns and cops were fired for illegal raids.

    • > cops were fired for illegal raids.

      This kind of pro-cop propaganda placing them above the law is disgusting.

      Cops should go to prison for illegal raids. Some behaviour needs to be severely punished.

      This kind of betrayal of trust is one of the most severe crimes one can commit against society, the punishments should be equally severe.

    • That’s not the real world. Criminals will always find a way to get guns no matter the amount of gun control you impose, so I’d rather have law abiding citizens be armed as well

      9 replies →

    • Some people want world peace and denuclearization. Each country is currently as it finds itself and takes a great deal of leadership and buy-in to change.

I'm fully European, would not wonder for a second before plunging a knife into an intruder if I happened to have one near me.

  • Really? 'Oh, someone I don't know! stab'? What if the person is plain-clothes law enforcement? Or a special needs person who somehow managed to wander into the wrong house? Or your sibling's new partner they want to introduce to you?

    Anyway, unless you actually have stabbed someone before you don't know whether you got what it takes until you're actually in a situation where you find out.

No it is not. Europeans can have guns, and there was a recent case in Belgium where such a thing happened.

  • I'd say it is. Yes there are people that own guns or hunting rifles. Most still don't think about guns or shooting first. Guns are supposed to be locked in a safe etc. All that does obviously not apply to a criminal who does not follow the law.

    • > Most still don't think about guns or shooting first.

      You base this on what? I know plenty of gun owners where I live, and most would pull open their safe the moment they hear something during the night. I'm willing to bet most gun safes are located in the bedroom.

  • I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to use your legal firearms against people in Denmark. Even in a home intrusion event.

    • You can if there's a direct threat to your life (i.e. you can see that the intruder is also armed).

      But you can't use it against someone for just entering your premises illegally. It needs to be a clear and present danger.

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    • In the EU the answer is always "it's unclear". Yes you can, but you also can't.

      ECHR necessarily guarantees the right to shoot some intruders in some situations, but it's kind of impossible to know which situations those are except after the fact.

Yes and no.

Weapons are normal here too.

  • Shooting intruders isn’t though. They’d basically have to attack you first for lethal force to be legal.

    • This is not the law here in Sweden, at least.

      We don't have precedent in the way that common law countries do, and the judgements in actual cases point in slightly different directions-- in one case a court felt that the failure to fire a warning shot made it not self-defence, in another fighting people trying to get into an apartment with a knife was deemed acceptable.

      Generally though, if someone is breaking into your apartment while you're there, possibly trying to get at you, there's no limit, as long as you're actually trying to defend yourself (so no executing someone who you've clearly disabled, etc.).

      If people are breaking into your apartment and you fire a warning shot, then proceed to shoot the attackers, no one will complain.

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    • > They’d basically have to attack you first for lethal force to be legal.

      They just violently entered his home in an effort to attack him, dressed in a way designed to intimidate. These cops were deliberately cosplaying as some sort of a hit squad, they obviously wanted him to believe that they were going to kill him.

      It's not like the cops just accidentally went out dressed like that.

      3 replies →

    • If a masked person, that doesn't first identify themselves clearly as the police (which is difficult since, well, they are masked) breaks into my house, that's a lethal attack for sure.

      What are you going to do after they enter the house (if they aren't indeed the police and you trust they won't kill or rape your family)?

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