Criminal Charges And Its Effect On The Man s Life And The...

Early on the morning of August 22, 2010 in rural Port Colborne, Ontario, three masked men were captured on a surveillance camera, shouting death threats and attempting to set ablaze a farmhouse while the owner was trapped inside. Fearing for his life and the destruction of his property, owner Ian Thomson, a licensed gun safety instructor and firearm expert, fired several warning shots in the direction of his assailants with a legally owned .38 caliber revolver. The perpetrators, who were known to police, quickly fled the scene and only a while later faced criminal charges and imprisoned. Ironically, while the evidence corroborated that Mr. Thomson acted in self-defense, when police arrived at the scene instead of being commended for†¦show more content†¦Some argue that Thomson should have never been charged in the first place as it was well within his natural right to defend life and property by whatever means necessary. However, contrary to that view there are those who contend that while it is true he acted in self-defense; Thomson stepped outside the boundaries of the law as established by the governing authority and should therefore be punished. Some say that in society it is an inherently natural right for an individual to own or possess a firearm regardless of its intended use. However others claim that it is the legal responsibility of the state to strictly regulate, limit or prohibit the possession of firearms altogether lest it be in the hands of a militia, military, police or other authorized personnel. Philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, as well as revered Jewish thinkers Malbim and Maharal give different ethical and moral insights into the debate of individual versus societal rights. One of the most prolific philosophers during the Age of Enlightenment was Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). In one of Hobbes writings, Leviathan, he suggests that everything in the universe can somehow be explained in terms of their motions and interacti ons with all other material bodies. Having a passion for mathematics, geometry in particular, Hobbes formulated a theory in