Where does the line get crossed?

Just read Marko's post about Jay's post about Weerd's post about Sean's post about a man who was shot by muggers after he had given up his wallet.  Weerd, Jay, and Marko all discuss whether or not it is morally right to use lethal force in order to protect property.  I thought I'd ring in with my two cents.

Irish Woman and I came into the adult world with literally the clothes on our backs.  Everything we have, with the exception of a very small number of things she's gathered that belonged to her parents, we have earned the money for and bought ourselves.  There is nothing in our home that I can look at and not think of what I had to do in order to earn it.   While I'm not emotionally attached to much of it, if someone was to take it from us, it would require further toil to replace it.  Yes, like most Americans, we have a lot of luxury goods, but we also have a lot of things that we need in order to get through every day.  All of these things are subject to theft, and thieves are subject to how I feel about protecting our property.

Add to that the propensity that I've started to notice among thieves to not leave witnesses behind, and you should start to understand my attitude.  I cannot with 100% certainty say how I will handle a thief who just wants to grab the TV and run, but I can't say that I wouldn't use a gun to stop him.  All bets are off if I feel that the thief, in addition to taking or destroying property, is presenting a threat to one of us, and that's going to be a reptilian brain instinctual, irrational decision.  Not a lot of space there for the "Well, he looks like he's just grabbing the laptop/wallet/TV.  Guess I'll just call the police." kind of decision making.  My only word of advice there is this:  Don't startle a man with a family to protect.  He might mistake your intentions and make your mama sad.

I once heard someone say that if a stereo isn't worth killing for, then it shouldn't be worth risking dying for.  Maybe instead of billboards along I-65 for gun turn-ins and mentoring volunteers, some of the organizations that do outreach to 'at-risk youths' should remind them of that.