Shooting the Cat Burglar

I was listening to the Dr. Mazz show on News Talk 1210 this evening and heard a shocking defense of a real life story.

A man in Somewhere, USA saw that his neighbor’s house was being robbed and he called 911. While the police were en-route, he decided to settle the matter in his own hands. He took his shotgun and went outside. As the two robbers were leaving the house with his neighbor’s poseessions, he shot them both dead.

Dr. Mazz wanted to debate the morality of this, and what penalty there should be if any.

My friends, let us not make any mistake, what this man did was commit two separate murders. To answer Dr. Mazz, the cops should have arrested this guy and charged him with two separate accounts of murder, potentially with murder one (intentfully planned). This guy shouldn’t be on our streets deciding if small crimes are worthy of his smoking shotgun.

I’m being very consistent when I tell you that killing another person is only morally correct when you do as a last-resort action in defense of another life (including self-preservation). I said this when I spoke out against certain types of embryonic stem cell research and its the same morality as it is now. People’s lives are worth more than stuff.

It would be one thing if he confronted the burglars ready to defend his life if they came at him. That would be either brave or stupid (depending on your point of view), and although really unnecessary he could confront them and ask them to stop. But this is not what happened, he purposefully went after two people who posed no threat to his self or anyone else and killed them.

What this man did was commit two pretty serious sins, and we should pray for him and for the souls of the thieves who really had no time to repent before they met the end of their world. But make no mistake — killing is wrong in all forms except the one I aforementioned.