"Martin Sykes" wrote in message ...
[...]
Possibly also our screwed up
legal system which means that if the burglar shoots someone they get a few
years in prison but if the homeowner shoots them, the homeowner gets
imprisoned and the burglar gets legal-aid to sue him.

I promised myself I wouldn't get into this OT sub-sub-thread; but as a
believer in the rule of law I just have to comment on that.

There is no death penalty in this country; and when there was, it was
administered by the state after due process, not by amateurs in hot
blood; and it was never in our lifetimes the penalty for burglary.

In the most celebrated recent case, I understand that a man sat up
waiting for intruders he was expecting, armed with an illegally-held
weapon of a type designed only for killing people, not for sport; he
then, if I remember correctly, shot an intruder who was on his way
*out*. It's a matter of personal judgement how such actions are to be
treated; but let's be reasonably clear what the actions were.

If a burglar shot somebody, the victim would, if qualified, receive
legal aid to sue him.

Murder in the course of another crime is generally treated with
greater severity than was the man who fired the gun in this case.

Mike.