[banjoman]

This is one of my pet peeves at the moment.

the law states you can use "reasonable" force to protect and defend yourself, but the test of reasonableness can vary so much. Its as if you are meant to guess how far a burglar will go to defend himself and then act appropriately ??? .

I believe the best weapons of defence arent knives etc because you have to be close to threaten to use it and then they can wrestle them away from you. A long stick or yardbrush would be better if one is handy.

However I think that until it happens to you, you have no idea of how you will react, and that under stress like that, anything you have to hand which increases your confidence to defend yourself becomes fair game.

If its men burglars go for the soft dangly bits as it were rather than the head....My legal defence would be that I considered a "reasonable" person would incapacitate the burglar to protect myself until the police arrived, and those areas would stop him from injuring us without long term damage (if you hit him in the head this is when they are more likely to look for compensation)