Summations Only

I don't think it's illegal for most ordinary Europeans to own firearms. There are lots of different countries in Europe, and they all have very different rules. It's true that two of the biggest, Germany and the UK, have very restrictive gun laws, but this isn't a general rule. FInland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world, and it's very easy to get hold of guns here in the Czech Republic if you want them (very few people do own guns here, but that's by choice - they're legally entitled to).I'm not actually sure on the laws here regarding the right to defend your home, and can't seem to find relevant legislation online. In England you do have the right to defend your home, and the conditions are similar to those used in Canadian law. It is perfectly legal to use force to protect lives and property from criminal action, but the force should be proportional, and there's a legal principle that you have to stop once the threat is removed. If the criminal gives in, is incapacited, or runs away, any further force is illegal. There are often big news stories about people not having the right to defend their home, but the facts are usually more complicated. In the famous case of the farmer sent to prison for murder after shooting a burgler, the burgler had been shot in the back while fleeing - that's what made the use of force unlawful.

English Common Law does allow for the use of force in protecting property as well as persons, or simply in preventing a crime. The concept was codified into statue law in the 1967 Criminal Justice Act:A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime, or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders or of persons unlawfully at large."So if someone tries to steal your TV, or invades your home, your entitled to use a reasonable level of force to stop them. You’re just forbidden from engaging in any punitive violence - only what is necessary to prevent the crime or protect yourself, others around you and your property.

It's a difficult topic to write a law on, really. We don't want to criminalise the use of force to stop criminals, as this seems to do away with the whole idea of a law that protects people from criminal activity. On the other hand, you don't want to give people carte blanche to use as much force as they feel like.The new government promised to clarify the law, but have been vague about the details.

I lost track of this thread long ago, but I dipped in long enough to notice this:

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What is really uncalled for is even trying to explain gun rights and gun laws to people from Canada or the UK, or any Subjects to the House of Windsor.

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Lol, you sound as knowledgeable on this subject as one of the Crown subjects.

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This is a bit of nitpick, arguably, but I just wanted to point out that I am not a subject. There are a few people left to whom the term 'subject' still legally applies, but these are just the odd few Indians, Pakistanis and Irish who gained citizenship neither of their new country or of the UK upon independence, and there will be no crown subjects left once they're all dead, or have aquired citizenship somewhere.I, on the other hand, am a citizen of the United Kingdom. Still not yet a citizen of the Republic of Great Britain, unfortunately, but certainly not a subject of any monarch.