[Stoat]

His crime? nominally using an unregistered handgun.

So then his actual conviction was for a gun ownership violation, not for offing the burglar?

Not trying to be picky or argumentative, just trying to understand  :-)

Normally, my guess would be that even in communities that have these horrific, unconstitutional gun- control laws, a jury presented with an otherwise law-abiding citizen who terminated a rampaging, murderous scumbag might be forced into a position of having no other option than to convict for the gun ownership violation, but they would use any means necessary to acquit the victim in the matter of capping the burglar.  Most sane citizens can easily imagine themselves in a similar circumstance and so are likely to have sympathy with the victim.

As the saying goes, I would much rather be judged by twelve than be carried by six  :-)

[from occupied ga]

Technically yes; however, NYC makes it almost impossible to register a handgun. My memory is that he had applied for the registration some months prior to the incident, but the city government was stalling as usual with non-celebrities.

Bernard Goetz was convicted of a gun violation - not shooting armed robbers. He was then further sued in civil court of causing pain and suffering to the one remaining scumbag and the NYC jury of his peers awarded the robber some outrageous sum like $250 million.