Booby Traps, Revisited

From: D
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2019 3:32 PM
To: Walter Block
Subject: Booby Traps

Dear Professor, Don’t go down that rabbit hole.  It’s a booby trap. What’s wrong with booby traps is that they’re indifferent to their victim. I see three possibilities, and there may be more. 1) Your victim is innocent of any crime, 2) your victim is not yet guilty of a crime,  or 3) your victim is guilty of a crime against the trapper. In the first two instances, you have initiated violence without cause. In the third, you have initiated punitive violence without due process. The indifference of the trap means it cannot choose and blindly wreaks violence without care. This cannot stand the NAP test.

Respectfully, D

Dear D:

Due process only comes into effect during the punishment phase of criminality. But the booby trap is defense of private property.

If A swings a fist in the direction of B’s nose, B doesn’t have to give A any due process. He may properly use up to deadly force to stop this assault, even though it is only an assault, not an attempted murder.

Best regards,

Walter

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3:24 am on October 31, 2019