My property is never worth more than a person's life.

[Silent3]

137. Close to never, but not absolutely so. The more a person shows willingness to do violence to me...

...in order to get my stuff, and the more they go from desperation to meet their own legitimate needs toward avarice and a "fuck you" attitude, like "I'm taking your stuff and there ain't shit you can do about!", then the less I'm going to value that person's life.

If I can help it, I certainly won't accept physical harm of myself or a loved one, or even an innocent stranger for that matter, forced up me by the callous disregard of an assailant. Whether the law would back me up or not, I don't feel I need to accept, for instance, a non-lethal bad beating just because my only defense against it might potentially be lethal.

If I were to too quickly choose a lethal defense in the heat of the moment of being attacked or defending someone else from an attack, in a situation where armchair quarterbacks with plenty of time on their hands can later leisurely decide I had less lethal alternatives, then my only regrets would be for possible legal consequences to me, not for the asshole who forced me into that situation in the first place.

I don't own a gun, however, and don't spend a lot of time worrying about home break-ins, muggers, etc., so regardless of what I feel about this stuff philosophically, I'm mainly just counting on the odds to keep me safe, and not designing my life around heroic defender fantasies.