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December 03, 2005
"Like a good neighbor"
Here's an example of why a gun is a better home self defense weapon than a knife: After being raped inside her Germantown home by a stranger yesterday afternoon, a woman persuaded her attacker to let her take her toddler upstairs - and when she came back down, she had a knife.While I admire this very brave woman and applaud what she did, there's a slight problem: the rapist is not dead. I think guns are more effective than knives. A gun would have spared this woman the agony of having to go to court to face this man again, and be cross examined. A dead man can't come back with a story about how he knew the victim, who let him inside for a cup of eggnog -- or a discussion about the works of Thomas Aquinas. And even if the dead man's family sues, the homeowner's story is all there is. But ominously for homeowners, insurance companies are refusing to defend or indemnify homeowners who kill in self defense, and in one recent New York case, such a refusal was upheld by the Court of Appeal: A man who killed an intruder in his home in self-defense is not entitled to insurance defense in a wrongful death action, a divided Albany appellate panel ruled Thursday in a case of first impression.Sometimes, the law is an ass. And according to the court's asinine reasoning, if the woman in today's story is sued, her insurance company would be allowed to refuse coverage, because (so goes the court's reasoning) actions taken in self defense are "expected" and "intended": Justice John A. Lahtinen and three of his four colleagues strictly construed the insurance policy language in holding that an occurrence of justifiable homicide results from an intentional rather than accidental act. Here, the defendant shot the decedent at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun. The action thus triggers the exception for incidents that are "expected or intended" by the insured, the panel found.I don't think there's anything expected or intended about defending against a sudden attack in the heat of battle during a home invasion. Self defense under these circumstances is little more than instinctual behavior, and no more expected or intended than struggling to breathe if you're being strangled. At least we don't have to pay premiums to burglars for protection. posted by Eric on 12.03.05 at 05:09 PM |
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