# Ok, if I shouldn't \_shoot\_ the intruder, then...?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-if-i-shouldnt-_shoot_-the-intruder-then/482060>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 19, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-if-i-shouldnt-_shoot_-the-intruder-then/482060 "2009-01-19T23:15:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 270

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**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-if-i-shouldnt-_shoot_-the-intruder-then/482060/270 "2009-01-21T13:26:59Z")

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> [@Scumpup](#):
>
> See, this is the criminal mindset at work. FTR, I have no trouble at all believing you were a petty thief. Your posts read exactly like the shit I heard coming out of the mouths of prisoners I transported and the “clients” I supervised in lock-up. You display a perverse pride in the fact that you did ill to others to benefit yourself. You shrug off having been arrested and incarcerated as “occupational hazard.” You imply that it’s okay to steal from others if they were remiss in their “duty” to secure their belongings from thieves; this after bragging upthread about the difficult entries and exits you personally pulled off.  
> To answer your question: Yes. He does deserve a shotgun blast. If he doesn’t want to get shot, he shouldn’t be stealing. That’s the thing about criminals; in their twisted, substandard minds they believe that\_somehow\_it is okay for them to do things that harm others, yet others harming them\_even in the midst of a crime\_is a terrible thing. Why don’t you just rationalize it that getting shot is an occupational hazard, just like arrest and incarceration? Don’t like that? TFB.

Listen, there’s no pride or braggadacio in my responses, I am simply recounting it as it was then for me, and how it likely still is now for a lot of people. I started burgling at the age of 13, for nothing but thrills and kicks, and when I saw how easy it was, combining the thrill factor and the monetary gain had me hooked. I stopped burgling houses six years later, not because I was afraid of getting caught by the police, but because I burgled a ‘gangster’s’ house by mistake, and was made to realise the error of my ways, in that you never knew who’s house you were robbing if you were an opportunist thief. If the householders had made it harder for me, I’d have moved on to robbing business premises a lot sooner.

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