Why is self-defense illegal?

Self defense is not illegal if there is an immediate threat to your life and to your property.

It's more on how you do it and firearms are not part of that.

Pepper Spray (or any other deterrent) will never be allowed in Ireland as the legal and "won't someone think of the poor criminals" bleeding heart brigade lobbies are too powerful.

Better a thousand women be raped than one poor thug suffer temporary discomfort.

One of the funniest excuses for not allowing deterrents here are "sure won't the criminals use them then" - as if criminals wait for something to be legalised before they use it. The clue is in the name.

You can licence a gun (not for self defence) but pepper spray is totally illegal. Go figure.

Certain people are of the opinion that judges are beyond reproach ....nothing could be further from the truth. In Padraig Nally's case - in the original trial the judge directed the jury to find Padraig guilty of murder, which they did and was imprisoned. He appealed on the basis that the judge was wrong in law to give such direction to the jury. Nally won and was released. Judges are mere mortals and get it wrong more often than we are led to believe, hence the right to appeal to a higher court and in certain cases to ECJ in the Luxembourg.

It would come down to circumstance i would think - if you sprayed a burglar in the face with hot sauce in your kitchen you'd likely get away with it - do it on the street, and the honourable m'lud would probably do you for having a weapon in a public place.

A lawyer friend once told me that, in Ireland, if you beat the living bejaysus out of a burglar with a hurley, you could argue self defence with an item that just happened to be lying around "after the kids hurlng training" whereas if you gave him the same beating with a baseball bat, it is a much harder sell (unless you happen to be American).

Another typical boards post, a confident statement with no explanation or backup.

You might want to look at the definition of indirect discrimination.

"Indirect discrimination is when there’s a practice, policy or rule which applies to everyone in the same way, but it has a worse effect on some people than others"

Self defence is legal yet the blanket ban on owning weapons for self defence affects those of a certain age, disability status and possibly sex (all of which are protected characteristics) more than it affects others.

This being Ireland there is as, usual a nudge nudge, wink wink attitude. That's why we have why elderly farmers keeping shotguns even though they rarely/never use the firearm for the purpose for which it was legally obtained i.e. shooting vermin - well the feathered and four legged kind.

Lighten up, eh?

Dead scumbags family/dependents can still sue. This, and the threats of reprisals (given the type of people you are likely dealing with) are at least as significant as any criminal case.

I have significant assets and scumbags would have a field day taking civil cases were I to injure/kill them or their family in self defence. So in my case, it really would have to be a life or death situation, not catching someone in my house robbing my DVD player and dispatching them "to be sure to be sure".

However, by the time I become elderly, have less time left to live and am more vulnerable to being attacked, i won't give a fcuk about being prosecuted, sued or reprisals. As I probably won't have the physical strength to draw my 70 lb compound bow then, I'll have to find a different sporting activity. Something like clay pigeon shooting perhaps, no strength needed to pull a trigger!

Silly post.

Using a single tragedy where pepper spray was an incidental element in a stampede (actually caused by people thinking there was a bomb) is a stretch even for you. Given that several people were murdered by immigrants in Ireland last year, should we ban immigrants too?

I didn't expect you to give a coherent answer, and you didn't disappoint.

"I'd ban silly sausage strawman posts before immigrants, but that's just me."

If you did that, your entire content would disappear, and what would we do then 😏