Negative
No
What if you open fire on that criminal stealing your TV that you say you have been trained to stop, and when you miss (because nobody is perfect, real life accuracy is like 20%), you kill the 3 year old next door.
Are you responsible for that? Yes, yes you are. Legally and morally.
Is that a risk worth taking for your TV?
So I hear clamoring in the night. Do I not check out whatâs going on? If he doesnât comply with my demands I could escalate to bear spray. The gun may not need to be drawn at this point. I donât know what the best answers are. I do know there are many other ways we can train to respond other then run, hide, call police and wait. That attitude is one of a victim. If the bear spray pisses him off and he comes at me it escalates again. Or, at that point, he drops the item and runs. Either way the intruder initiated the encounter. I shouldnât be afraid to defend myself and property. I think thatâs the wrong attitude for approaching a self defense situation. We shouldnât train to be non-combative. We should train to defend
Okay. Letâs take this one step of the scenario at a time.
Do you have an alarm system at your home?
Where do police get 6 weeks of training?
Around here it is closer to 6 months, and even then youâre probably still in field training at that the 6 month mark and not totally on your own
So you think itâs best to train people to run and hide and call the police?
If I run hide and call the police from a defensive position then I may become a victim of a property crime but my family and I are survivors of a potentially violent confrontation. Putting yourself at extra risk to protect stuff can make you dead. No matter how well trained you are and how poorly trained the criminal is they can still get lucky and put you down.
In your bear spray scenario are you spraying it inside your house? Sounds like a good way to incapacitate yourself. Or are you going outside to spray the criminal? If so do you know exactly where the criminal is or how many friends he has hiding in the shadows? Why leave the safety of your house to confront unknown threats? Sounds like a huge tactical mistake to me.
I think the reason that organizations like USCCA train to avoid confrontations instead of seeking them is because doing so is almost always the surest way to keep you and your family safe from the criminal and the legal system. Most people train for self defense not stuff defense.
Training like that gives criminals incentive. I think your wrong about the legal aspect. Defending yourself and your property is legal. Training people to fear the legal part is wrong. You should train them to know whatâs legal and whatâs not. Iâm not some super trained guy, I just think the philosophy of current training practices is off. It makes more sense to me to train people to stand their ground. I think if more people trained like that crime in general would potentially begin to decrease.
Another point would be that Iâm not seeking confrontation. The criminal is the person initiating the conflict. Sometimes I mistakenly refer to pepper spray as bear spray. I need to work on that. Iâm no expert or instructor. Iâm just spitballing ideas. I love the back and forth though. You make a great argument for staying safe and staying alive. Iâm just not convinced itâs the right response.
I think that the only way crime decreases is if the justice system stops releasing hardened criminals back onto the street with a slap on the risk. Also think that disadvantaged kids need better communities, opportunities and role models that donât dead end them into criminal activities.
I do think that if everyoneâs first option is to âstand their groundâ instead of doing everything in their power to avoid a confrontation then the hospitals and cemeteries are going to be getting more costumers. Iâm not advocating cowering in fear. Just saying I think it is best to avoid conflict whenever possible.
Agree 100% with all of your social points. Also 100% disagree with your self defense point. I think a lot less criminals would get away with whatever it was they wanted. We may even begin to see more successful self defense stories in all of those great publications like Concealed Carry magazines. Inspiring people to take their own personal protection more confidently into their own hands.
Just to play devilâs advocate, how do I better avoid a confrontation if the criminal breaks into my home?
Donât get me wrong, I agree with avoiding whenever you can. But, my door is locked for mine and their safety. 
Insightful question, food for thought per se. Could also depend on exactly what one is doing to âstopâ an alleged criminal and what is the actual act by said alleged criminal.
Allowing a criminal to get away? Like he/she is moving away from leaving? Might it depend on exactly what we are doing to try to stop them?
Not all laws are moral or ethical. Are those terms subjective?
Who decides what morally responsible, and how do we define that? Maybe itâs us. Are we distinguishing it from âlegalâ? Are we ever legally responsible to stop a crime? Are we entrenching on police duties as opposed to civilians who may not have a legal duty?
What can be a consequence morally if we donât try to stop the criminal or act?
Are we 100% certain that a crime is being committed and are we breaking a law by stopping said alleged criminal?
Fine line between doing the right thing, bravery, and stupidity.
One could get hurt, then who suffers, physically, legally, emotionally, financially?; The hero, the heroâs family? One could even risk losing their right to bear arms another day. If life is on the line of oneâs self or a family member, I can see how one could step in.
How would judge and jury representing the specific region you are in, view you and rule on your actions?
Protect oneself and family. Calling 911 or the police non emergency line is one thing; Inserting oneself is drastically different of course.
Not my circus, not my clowns?
Might there be a case where this happened and the initial victim ended up being morally responsible?
IDK.
Iâm reminded of a film, where the main actor did himself experience a very high level of feeling morally responsible. It was severe guilt. Initially, he experienced fear. His feeling of guilt was so powerful, he ended up dedicating his life and making the ultimate sacrifice to make up for his not trying to stop the crime:
The Salton Sea (2002)
Interesting topic/post. 
Great response! Thanks!! My thought was it boils down to training. Instead of training a person to find cover and let someone else deal with it, train people to responsibly engage. This kind of training from giants like the USCCA and nra to all of their members could lead to more lawful defenses of life and property. Leading then to more people being inspired to legally defending themselves(this does not necessarily mean with a gun, most criminals would give up or run before that) no madder what the scenario. At home, in the city, on vacation. Ultimately leading to more criminals choosing a different, less dangerous profession.
Wow! What a great crowd! Thanks to everybody for their responses, except David38 who makes things up to strengthen his position. Agree or disagree I love hearing from everyone. This was especially tuff because weâve all been trained to do the opposite of what Iâm presenting. Furthermore weâve been trained to not even mention publicly any other position other then the company position of flight for fear that a prosecutor could use these exact words against a person in a future case. I think fear is so powerful. Powerful enough to control even the strongest of us. We canât let fear get in the way of doing whatâs best.
FEAR HAS TWO MEANINGS
1:Forget Everything And Run
2:FACE Everything And Rise
The choice is yours
A criminal who breaks into my home and gets in the way of getting my wife and son to our secure area will definitely be confronted unless they instantly turn tail and run. But once in our secure area I feel I can best protect my family by staying there between them and the threat. Leaving my family to go confront the intruder just puts them in more danger. My secure area has a nice little funnel that gives me a distinct advantage with a much higher chance of success over trying to track down an unknown number of home invaders somewhere in the house. I prefer to choose the ground to make my stand on.
But several of the scenarios presented above and in the related thread added taking additional risks in order to preserve property. At least one of them after the criminals were already fleeing. I donât think the risk to reward ratio in those scenarios makes sense.
I am afraid a post or two may have been missed in the shuffe:
Okay. Letâs take this one step of the scenario at a time.
Do you have an alarm system at your home?
My opinion â No, the current paradigm is correct and appropriate for dozens of well-reasoned and well-documented reasons. Deincentivizing criminal behavior by civilian violence has (predictable but) unintended bad consequence written all over it.
In the first go-round of Spider-Man movies, the theme was summed up: âWith great power comes great responsibility.â
With every new iteration, they try to state the same heroâs dilemma without repeating the same clichĂ©. The stated question reminds me of some of their more awkward attempts. If I see something bad happening and I have the ability, do I then have the moral obligation to act?
I donât think I can answer this for anyone but myself. Just bear in mind that we have laws that regulate what we can and cannot do when we think something bad is happening. Some of those laws might not be perfect, but a lot of them are based on people with good intentions doing very bad things.
Never heard those two different meanings compared to one another, worth the price of admission here alone. Stay safe.
Cheers and a toast to âChoice is Yoursâ, pun intended within this beautiful song and eerily timely lyrics my friend
Getting involved is always fraught with danger for yourself, not only legally but physically. You sure canât just âcome in from the sideâ with guns blazing based on your immediate interpretation of a situation you know nothing about. That would be a good way for you to end up in jail yourself for a very long time. Should we want to help each other? Absolutely! However, you need to weigh that very carefully against your commitment and responsibility to your family and yourself.