I'd like to add that we don't need conjecture about what happens when citizens are allowed to kill thieves becuase TX already has this law. In TX you can while victim or witness to a property theft, use lethal force to stop the thief.
I feel a lot of these discussions revolve around the extremes and ignore that we have a real life active government functioning with my basic premise as their active law. The sky has not fallen in TX. People are not dying in wide swaths. Children are not being mowed down. Most people will choose to not use lethal force. I'm all good with that. But what prevents crime from increasing is the threat of danger to the thief.
I get all that. Philosophically, I even agree with you to a point. My hangup is that your panacea is not sustainable, because property owners sometimes (NOT in this case, granted) think they're victims when they're really not.
I'm thinking about this right now because I just got back from my neighbor's house. USPS gave me some of his mail this morning, so I figured I'd go drop it into his mailbox. No harm, no foul.
Suppose, though, that he heard me on his porch, leaned out his front door, and saw me with my hand in his mailbox. I was dropping off, not picking up, but he didn't know that. Now, suppose he challenges me. "I'm just dropping off your mail, dude," I say, but in his mind he already suspects me:
of course that's what a mail thief would say, so he pulls his gun and points it at me.
I flee. I'm clearly dealing with a freaking madman, and want to GTFO; I was just trying to get his mail to him. Or? I grab for his gun because I see he's about to shoot me; either way, I reinforce his wrong idea about what's happening. But either way, I beat feet.
So he shoots me in the back as I flee, which some people here say is perfectly kosher.
Your worldview says that's just fine and dandy. And that there's nothing my wife and kids can do about it, because the state shouldn't question him. And I'm dead now, so I can't tell my side of what happened.
Granted, as I said earlier, I'm on a tangent. I just think that your "solution to the problem" is just as wrong as any other.