I went with option #1, but not wholeheartedly. All this bollocks about "I broke into his house and he hit me and now I want compensation" needs sorting out.
On the other hand, somebody re-enacting that nasty scene from Reservoir Dogs is somebody I'd rather see removed from polite society, even if his victim was some git breaking in.
"Reasonable force" is a reasonable law, it's when people who think all violence is unreasonable get to make the decisions that the blood-boiling headlines crop up.
There's a 6-cell maglite in our bedroom - essentially a truncheon with a light at the end. Anybody coming in univited will get a very up-close introduction to it. That, in my book, is reasonable, and I'd be very unhappy to be taken to court for it.
If I then dragged his unconscious body to our (second story) balcony and threw him off it, I'd expect, and probably get, a jail sentence.
As for the "I broke a window to get in and cut myself on the broken glass and now I want to sue" stuff... well... let's just say that as far as I'm concerned, you should be able to put land mines in your garden without fear of consequences, so long as there's a warning sign up somewhere
