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Booby Traps

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Old Geezer

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Is the Use of Booby traps with purposefully deadly force to protect one's property moral?

Can it be made illegal on the basis that Police must be able to access private property without fear in emergencies or when it is suspected that someone's rights are being violated inside the property?

What other issues are involved?

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Would you want to drive a car that, if an electrical fault ever occured, would kill you instantly?

Would you be comfortable in a home in which opening a door without first pushing a spring-loaded latch would inflict certain death?

Electrical faults and human forgetfullness happen every day.

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Bearster

I recognize that, and believe me I have no intention of setting up Booby traps.

But humans are innovative enough that the threat of forgetfullness or faultiness etc would not necessarilly be a deterrent for them.

Is it moral for THOSE people to make booby traps?

Does it Constitute an initiation of force? (what about if the property is not clearly labeled?)

Does it matter if the Booby traps are planned for Deadly force? What about force that is purposefully harmful??(an electric fence for instance is meant to shock, but not permanently harm an individual, meanwhile a bear trap could do nasty things to my leg.)

Should the government make Booby traps illegal? Can this be done on the grounds they constitute planned threats to police should they need to enter the property?

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If you put a strong fence all around your property that will assuredly prevent inadvertent entry, AND you keep all doors constantly locked, then booby traps are OK. Anyone who ends up on your property despite all these measures is definitely an ill-willed trespasser.

However, if you only label your property, without securing its perimeter, then you leave open the possibility that children or people who cannot read English--or ones who simply don't happen to see your signs--might unwittingly stray onto your land and be killed, and that is an initiation of force.

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Is the use of booby traps with purposefully deadly force to protect one's property moral?

Police are not the only issue, although booby traps are illegal for their protection also. If there is an accident (i.e. smoking in bed, short in a wire, lighting strike) and the house catches on fire firemen do not need a warrant to enter your property to put out the fire. Do you have the right to refuse help in a fire? Fires spread. The fire department has the moral obligation to protect their neighborhood and their own homes by preventing the spread of the fire by entering the property and putting out the fire. Booby traps, especially fatal booby traps, then become a form of aggression against individuals who are exercising their moral right of self-preservation and defense. What if the house is located in the middle of a rural area where there are not any other homes? Woods burn and small fires become as big as small states.

Booby traps are not moral because they as damaging to those who are trying to preserve life as they are against those who are trying to take life.

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