The left loves to denigrate the castle doctrine and “stand your ground laws,” but there are good and sufficient reasons for these; there is no greater natural right than the right to defend yourself in your own home.

Imagine, if you will, what you would do if two armed men broke into your home in the middle of the night and forced you into your kitchen.

Most of us, if we had a gun handy, probably wouldn’t have ended up in the kitchen in the first place, but if we had, we probably would have done what a 78-year-old Englishman did: grab a kitchen knife and stab the guy.

In the U.S. that would be a prima facie case of self-defense.

But in not-so-merry Old England, Richard Osborn-Brooks is facing prison time for killing the armed intruder.

A 78-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a suspected burglar was stabbed to death.

The man, named locally as Richard Osborn-Brooks, discovered two intruders in South Park Crescent, Hither Green, south-east London, at about 00:45 BST.

One suspect, armed with a screwdriver, forced the man into his kitchen where a struggle ensued and he was stabbed, Scotland Yard said.

The 38-year-old was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead at 03:40.

Mr Osborn-Brooks, who suffered bruising to his arms, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

He remains in custody at a south London police station. The other intruder remains at large.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), people in the UK can use “reasonable force” in cases of self-defense or the defense of others.

As a general rule, the more extreme the circumstances and the fear felt, the more force you can lawfully use in self-defence.

The law doesn’t require you to wait to be attacked before using defensive force, but does not protect you if, for example, your action is over-the-top or calculated revenge.

You are given greater protection under the law if force is used to protect yourself or others when dealing with a burglar or trespasser on your property.

The CPS says if you have acted in reasonable self-defence, as described above, and the intruder dies you will still have acted lawfully.

However, Mr. Osborn-Brooks, who has since been bailed out, is still potentially facing murder or manslaughter charges for defending his life and property.

Meanwhile, in London, the murder rate has surpassed New York’s, with most cases involving knives:

From The Sunday Times:

Fifteen people were murdered in the capital, against 14 in New York. Both cities have almost exactly the same population.

London murders for March are also likely to exceed or equal New York’s. By late last night there had been 22 killings in the capital, according to the Metropolitan police, against 21 in the US city.

Eight Londoners were murdered between March 14 and March 20 alone and the total number of London murders, even excluding victims of terrorism, has risen by 38% since 2014.

FBI data and studies by the late Eric Monkkonen, a researcher at the University of California, show that since 1800 London has had a murder rate per person of between half and a 20th of New York’s.

Worse, gun crime (how’s that gun control working out for you England?) is up as well.

As we reported earlier this week, gun crime offenses in London surged by 42 percent in the last year, according to official statistics.

The Met Police’s figures showed there were 2,544 gun crime offenses from April 2016 to April 2017 compared to 1,793 offenses from 2015 until 2016.

Knife crime also increased by 24% with 12,074 recorded offences from 2016 to 2017.

The Met said although crime rates were rising they remained at a much lower level than five years ago.

Scotland Yard registered annual rises across a number of serious offence categories in the past 12 months, following several years of falls.

The total number of offences during the 2016 to 2017 financial year was 774,737, an increase of 4% from the previous year when total offences stood at 740,933.

Knife crime offences that resulted in an injury also increased, by 21% to 4,415 from 2016 to 2017, compared to 3,663 offences the year before.

The force said robbery offences, which increased 12% year-on-year, were at about half the level of 2006-2007 and there were 58 fewer homicides this year compared to 10 years ago.

Then you have this odious excuse for a human being who shows just how far the mighty British Empire has fallen:

https://twitter.com/PaulKilby87/status/982142699632410624

https://twitter.com/PaulKilby87/status/981572668163067906

This is typical of the left. Nothing is worth defending, not even your own life.

Folks, there’s a word for a man who is unwilling to do what is necessary to defend himself and his loved ones: coward.

This is what the anti-gun left would force upon us.