http://www.calgaryherald....sword/1996598/story.html
WASHINGTON - A U.S. student on Tuesday killed a recidivist burglar with a samurai sword, slicing off his left hand and severely cutting his neck after he spotted the intruder in his garage, police said.
The undergraduate medical student at Baltimore's prestigious Johns Hopkins University was being questioned by police but he may not be charged if found to be acting in self-defense. Samurai swords are legal in the United States.
Police received a call for help at 1:20 a.m. after the burglar pried open a side-door into the garage of the house, which four students rented off the campus, Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
"They asked him to stop and while they called police, the suspect lunged at the student. He then retaliated by striking him with a samurai sword, severed his left hand and gave severe lacerations to the upper torso," he said.
The burglar, who was in his late 40s, had a history of burglaries and had just been released from prison on Saturday, he said.
The student, whose name was not released as he was not charged, had recently reported a burglary in which thieves reportedly took laptop computers and a Sony PlayStation video-game machine.
The United States, where the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected, has few restrictions on owning swords although some local jurisdictions limit the right to brandish them in public.
"I think everyone has the right to first of all defend themselves and defend their home and if this individual felt that a samurai sword was an appropriate tool to do so, I'm not in a position to say that's good or bad," Guglielmi said.
The samurai, Japan's medieval knights, carried swords as they enforced a code of moral order. Modern Japan, however, requires strict registration of all sizable swords.
England and Wales last year banned the sale of samurai swords except to collectors after a spate of crimes.
Tuesday's incident was the latest violence involving a top U.S. university. Police on Monday found the body of a 24-year-old Yale University student stuffed in a laboratory wall.
Awesome.
Yeah, I already read about this on another forum. Dude should've used his samurai sword to slice the burglar into 16 pieces and then have him served with a nice black bean sauce. Mmmmmmmmmmmm, tasty!
Awsome, I think the Kid was justified, even if the man was just there to still stuff, I mean how many Burglers have turned into murders in the past, Its best not to take chances & end up getting killed over a labtop & a Playstation. The kid was totally in the right on this, now theres just one less Crimanal roaming the streets to worry about...I Hope I get to use my Scythe im the same way someday!
Also Fell sorry for the Yale Kid...who would have thought University's were such Violent places....I mean Murder at Yale, who woulda thunk...Man Humans are crazy these days....I blame the Media. (Lulz)
Man Humans are crazy these days
These days?
The weeaboos shall inherit the earth
Kid is awesome. I would've yelled "Go for the Jugular man!". It was in self-defense so he should not get charged with anything.
An important question would be, how did did student become an undegraduate medical student? All medical students have a degree from an undegrad university, otherwise they would not be med students in the USA. Meaning all medical students are graduate students earning their doctorate of medicine. Silly news reporters!
Oh well, I'm off to polish my set of Katanas. Never know when I might need to slice someone 
Was hoping he went all Musashi on him with a wooden sword. Still pretty impressive.
Oh well, I'm off to polish my set of Katanas. Never know when I might need to slice someone
*unsheathes his twin katanas and then holds both of them close to Hidoi's neck* I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL, FAIR MAIDEN!
Sorry, but I can just picturing him swinging wildly with his eyes closed screaming "BY THE POWWWEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRR!!!!"
...But the news report seems more realistic.
LoL @ the last paragraph... How does this involve a top US university? It didn't happen on school grounds...
And yeah, the burglar had it coming to him. Pain in the ass, sounds like he contributed nothing to society.
Interesting. Had that happened in the UK, the guy would have been arrested and charged in the blink of an eye. I suspect the UK legislative idea of self-defence doesn't extend quite so far as the US one.
After all, in this country, defending your property with deadly force gets you a nice, long jail term. Just ask a certain Norfolk farmer...
DW
Depends on the situation really. I've seen instances (Don't have sources, just a word-of-mouth thing) where someone defends themselves and gets arrested as well (Some of those have to do with sketchy circumstances though, so who knows?). Still, glad to see things worked out in the end lol
One thing the American Justice system fears is the media. Once the media got ahold of this, law enforcement probably figured they didn't want to handle the bad press from it. Hence the ending at hand.
uklaw fails because the term "reasonable force" is used within self defense laws, therefore if someone threatens you with a knife and you end up stabbing him to death with his own knife, then that's good! If a burglar happens to be running or walking away from you/ a farmer then you cannot shoot them in the back as that would be "no good" under uk law.
Also ""They asked him to stop and while they called police, the suspect lunged at the student. He then retaliated by striking him with a samurai sword, severed his left hand and gave severe lacerations to the upper torso," he said."
or did he? did the suspect "lunge" at the student who happened to be brandishing a sword? perhaps the burglar wanted to escape and ran towards the student?
I think I'd want to escape from some nutter with a samurai sword, yes.
Reasonable force is kind of the point of UK law - you don't go out in public with half a brick in a sock, because that could be an offensive weapon. If, however, you had a six pack of cola in your handbag and whapped a mugger round the head with it to escape, that would not be an offensive weapon* and would be reasonable force in order to defend yourself. If he subsequently died of his head injuries, there might be arguments about how "reasonable" the force used was, but if he didn't, you'd probably be OK. Generally speaking, killing your attacker / burglar is considered unreasonable force.
As Nukeallthewhales points out above, shooting the fleeing burglar in the back was deemed unreasonable - he might have got away with it had there been a struggle for the gun or something, but generally the UK law looks down on anyone other than specially-trained police and the armed forces having shotguns or any other gun.
DW
*Though I hear someone this weekend got charged with brandishing an offensive weapon in the form of an open drinks can, so who knows?
even a rolled-up newspaper/closed folded up small umbrella is good for self-defense if you jab it in the right places.
i've had a lot of discussion about 'reasonable force' in my aikido class, and it's interesting to note that as a female, if i successfully floored someone attacking me and then ran away that i'm less likely to be charged by the police then a man defending himself the same way.
If that undergrad student killed that burglar here in Australia, I'm pretty sure he'd unfortunately get arrested for it.
For some reason I think we should just start a giant master thread of freaky "heroics of everyday normal people"
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/asia-pacific/farmers-daughter-disarms-terrorist-and-shoots-him-dead-with-ak47-1900311.htm l" href="">
A girl saved her father by killing a terrorist by hitting him with an axe and then shooting him dead with an AK-47 then wounding another one wounding another one.
Miss Kausar said she had never fired an assault rifle before but had seen it in films and could not stand by while her father was being hurt. "I couldn't bear my father's humiliation. If I'd failed to kill him, they would have killed us," she said.
And that other story about the old man who ran some burglars out of his home. Heroics of the every day person lol
