Maybe replaced was the wrong word to use. I know that, in general, the law tends to value possessions less than people.

That's a bit extreme, isn't it? There are countries where the population really does have no rights (Iraq under Saddam for example). We are not one of them.

While what you say is true, they do have the right to defend themselves against common criminals.

I've not read every post so forgive me if I'm repeating things, the Tony martin case isn't a good example for this argument for several reasons firstly while people have claimed he was protecting his home, wrong Mr martin shot somebody in the back running through his garden not his home, the illegal weapon he had was not used to protect his livelihood against foxes etc since his farm was an over grown field, the guy was a well known nut with mental health problems who booby trapped his property with "lethal devices" a slept with a loaded unlicensed pump action shotgun, on a personal i would react differently from u average person as training kicks in, i understand people tend to react out of fear but no property is worth having to kill for i know this no many people here will do.

you always have the right to use appropriate reasonable force

An untrained person will always have a problem judging an appropriate response in a situation like that.
....and I would be setting booby traps if I lived miles from nowhere, been burgled before and knew the police were probably not going to respond.

In Texas, you have the right to shoot someone that is trespassing on your property if you warn people where your property starts. If you find your wife sleeping with another man in your house, you can shoot him without fear of being prosecuted.

well that says alot about texas then m8

President Tony has given all our rights to Europe and bought in some p1ss poor ones from Brussels..... :rolleyes:

On my bedroom door I have a chinning bar - I'm very good at doing chin ups on it, at night and during the day it tends to lie next to my bed to stop people hitting their head on it as they walk through the doorway. During the night it's the first thing to hand should I be 'startled'.

Quite often the three most important women in my life (mother, sister, girlfriend) are asleep in the same house and I will go very far to protect them.

i like texans they know how to have fun beer and bar room fights :p

Well, my partners neighbour had an attempted break in on Sunday night. The tried to get in the kitchen window by removing the beading.
Police turned up at 9:30am this morning (wednesday). I'm pretty sure they were just making sure there were no nasty burglars around.
Makes you think though doesnt it, if the police wont protect you why cant we take the law into our own hands?

When the police were origionally set up, the authorities used that as an excuse to disarm the population- promising us that we no longer had to defend ourselves against intruders as there was a police force to do it. The police force is now not keeping up their end of the deal. Can we have our weapons back and the right to use them?

Not in all cases. Look at Zimbabwe..

We had a burglary where someone tried to climb in through a small 10x14 ish window during the night.

Unfortunately for them, my Brother was home on leave & sleeping in the room.

He ended up chasing them down the road (wearing only his underpants) waving a decorative double bladed axe he pulled off of its nail in the wall.
Good job he never caught him...

Now lets not get silly:)