When the state ceases to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate criminals , the criminals become more brazen and vigilantes arise.
Self-defense is not vigilantism.
From Merriam Webster:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vigilante
: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate)
broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice
I wish FReepers would stop using the term inaccurately. Of all people, conservatives should know better what vigilantism is and what it is not.