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Comment by phil21 | Hacker News Reader

Yeah. There were times in my life I would have put my life on the line (and that of the thief) to defend my vehicle and the tools within it. Those fed myself and my family. I would have had no reasonable means to replace my tools, and barely reasonable means to replace the damage a catalytic converter theft would have caused me.

Today it's trivially easy for me to say "property can be replaced, a life cannot" since I am exceedingly privileged. I would not put my life, or anyone else's on the line to defend anything but my and my family's personal safety. But I remember what it was like to not be so ridiculously privileged. So I get it.

Only someone who has never lived a hard day in their life can spew such stuff at other folks. It's entirely circumstantial.

The laws should reflect the prior case, not the privileged one. At least if you want to disincentivize criminal behavior.

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Or you could have a society with a welfare safety net or even viable forms of transportation other than a private car. It appears that places where that happen also tend to have much lower crime rates as an added benefit.

> to defend my vehicle and the tools within it

This is a very normal commercial insurance problem. Sure, you can supplement it by buying a gun and staying up all night defending your truck, but the family ain’t gonna be happy if you bought the gun in lieu of insurance, especially if you lose that gunfight.

I agree. Insurance is generally a better solution for this than engaging some burglar

I would like to agree, but that's not how insurance works, at least in the U.S.

You get your catalytic converter stolen, and you will pay for it three times. The first is you paid for the original one. Then you paid for insurance to cover its theft, and likely your payments over the years have already paid for the catalytic converter a second time. And then after it's stolen, your insurance rates will raise such that you are paying for a 3rd (maybe fourth) converter, just on a monthly plan now.

Now, of course, shooting the thief is only cheaper if you don't invest much in your weapons and training, and don't face any legal scrutiny afterwards and need to hire a lawyer.

The obvious solution is you remove it after inspection and keep it safe inside

You don't have to engage the burglar, you just need to shoot a gun once (a shotgun is especially effective) b/c the blast will render the perp deaf temporarily.

Sometimes you get some mechanics' tools. But the best part is the laugh, watching someone running away with their pants full of shite.

> I would have had no reasonable means to replace my tools, and barely reasonable means to replace the damage a catalytic converter theft would have caused me.

But if you had died in the interaction, and let's say the thief at that point even left the goods and decided to leave, that would have totally been a win outcome, because the property with which you provided your livelihood was saved… wait…

> Only someone who has never lived a hard day

Yeah right…

I never understood why people forget this:

- Life is more valuable esp. if "you + property" combo is the livelihood. Okay, let's make this simpler. Probability of tools replacement ≠ 0; definitely >0. Possibility of you being replaced after death =0. Yup, it's not >0 yet, folks.

- When you are going for a life-losing/taking-possibility escalation level, maybe don't forget it's a two-way street..

Fear is not a license to kill.

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