The right to self-defense in the United States is taken as a given. One may use force when one reasonably believes it is necessary to defend oneself or another from an unlawful attacker, provided that no more force is used than is necessary stop the attacker, up to and including killing the attacker.
In the U.K., there is no de facto right to self-defense, to the point where stopping a rapist is considered worse than a woman being raped. As the British “Ask the Police” “help” website points out:
“The only fully legal self defence product at the moment is a rape alarm.”
Or to put it more bluntly:
“You must not get a product which is made or adapted to cause a person injury. Possession of such a product in public (and in private in specific circumstances) is against the law.”
In other words, the only self-defense that is allowed is one where the criminal is not harmed… reasonable force is denied, and thus the right to self-defense is denied.
While rapists, de jure, do not have a right to rape, rape victims do not have the right to not be raped.
Remember: Better to be tried by twelve than carried by six.
Hat Tip: Crusader Rabbit.
