You aren’t ‘defending yourself’ by plowing a van into random targets. No more than Dylan Roof was defending anything.
Even lynching isn’t a defense, it is mob rule (and was practiced against a variety of crooks and crimenals awaiting trial and even those broke strikes, not just black people.
“You aren’t ‘defending yourself’ by plowing a van into random targets.”
We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about your statement that vigilante action is always and only wrongful, and the reasons you have for believing that.
“Even lynching isn’t a defense”
Some of the things that people have done when the authorities wouldn’t include giving people a talking to, or a whipping, or running them out of town. Those things are all vigilantism.
So, back to the question: why do we lose our right to be safe from predators if the government refuses to enforce it?