More homicides, or a change in classification of a similar number of homicides?
I would hate to think that prior to the law an average of 95 people a year might have been jailed for legitimately defending themselves...
That is what i am thinking as well, i can think of many situations in which folks could get prison under the old law, and not deserve it, that have now been classified ( as they should be) as not illegal.
Think of the following.
A gent starts to harass me on the street, maybe he is mugging me, maybe he just doesn't like the look of me. After a few minutes he is now in my face, threatening, swearing, etc. Under the old law, i would have to put myself in a tactically horrible situation, and attempt to run, thereby giving him a chance to attack me while i am not actively defending myself. But let's face it, at this point in the confrontation , no one is going to be thinking about the law, they are going to be thinking of their own safety.
So all of those people ( both those that end up killing the attacker, or simply striking first.) are going to be in some form of legal trouble, for simply trying to defend themselves.
Now i know there is going to be the line of argument "But not all instinces like that turn to violence. " , but that is not the issue. The aggressor in the situation, wants you to believe it will result in violence, because in a good portion of situations like this, it will. And if their intent is to make someone believe that, they know damn well how it could turn out. Don't want to take the chance of getting harmed, don't be an *******, plain and simple.
The law is not the issue, folks who like to pretend to be cops are the issue. If this law wasn't around, he could still get away with claiming self defense under the circumstances, self defense laws are flawed, but so are all laws, to blame them for the actions of some idiot, is unfair to the law itself.
