The Right to Self-Defence

The Bill of Rights of 1689 declared that Protestant subjects 'may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law'. It was one of the founding statements of English liberty. Three centuries later, it is mostly cited by historians and quietly ignored by everyone else.

Britain now has some of the strictest weapons laws in the developed world. Handguns were effectively banned after 1997. Carrying anything for self-defence, even a deterrent spray, is illegal. The citizen is told, in effect, to wait for the police, a sensible instruction when response times are measured in minutes and not, as is increasingly the case for many crimes, in days.

The law on self-defence in the home was clarified in 2013, allowing householders to use force that is not 'grossly disproportionate'. Yet cases continue to arise in which victims who defended themselves face arrest, months of investigation and the threat of prosecution. The process itself becomes the punishment.

We support