“Self-Defense”

It’s hard not to imagine any one of us being enraged dad Jason Munroe.

Fortunately, the Whitby father of three will not be going to jail for firing at the home invaders who shot his adult son – the Crown has lost its bid to overturn Munroe’s conditional sentence of two years of house arrest.

“Given the exceptional circumstances of the offence and the significant mitigating factors, we see no error in principle in this case,” wrote Court of Appeal Justice Steve Coroza on behalf of the three-judge panel. “Nor do we find that the sentence was manifestly unfit.”

The month of August kicked off in devastating fashion for residents of Twin Falls, Idaho, when a rifle-wielding gunman opened fire on employees and patrons outside of In-N-Out Burger restaurant, killing three and injuring seven before taking his own life. Video quickly surfaced, however, of an armed bystander engaging the gunman during the rampage, advancing toward him while returning fire with his own suppressed pistol. Police have since praised the bystander—identified as 35-year-old healthcare worker Jordan Salinas—as a “hero,” crediting him with saving “many lives” by diverting the gunman’s attention and allowing potential victims to escape.

Ontario’s top court has upheld a house arrest sentence for a man who grabbed a gun from armed intruders who shot his son and fired it at them from his porch while they fled.

The Crown tried to appeal Jason Munroe’s conditional sentence from the Ontario Court of Justice. But the province’s Appeal Court dismissed the case.

On Monday of this week I wrote about a bizarre civil suit that had gone to trial in Portland, Oregon involving a convicted burglar and the owner of the business he broke into, who shot the man in self-defense. 

On July 15th, Mario Roggero, a jeweller from Piedmont charged with fatally shooting two of the three robbers who had just raided his shop in 2021, received a final sentence of fourteen years and nine months in prison. This protracted legal battle has opened up a new political front in Italy and reignited a heated debate: to what extent does a citizen have the right to defend themselves when the state is no longer able to protect them?