Self Defense With a Samurai Sword

While everyone has worries about their personal safety, most people think of conventional weapons when thinking about self defense in the home. That wasn’t the case when an alleged burglar broke into the Baltimore home of students of Johns Hopkins recently. Instead of reaching for a gun or a Taser, four students confronted the alleged burglar in the garage of the home. One of those students was carrying a samurai sword.

According to the students involved, the intruder lunged toward the four students, and the students felt threatened. The student wielding the samurai sword used it to defend himself and the rest of the group. During this altercation, one of the intruder’s hands was severed and he incurred several other injuries.

Campus security officers and an off-duty police officer arrived at the scene and found the students calling for help and for the police to assist them. The intruder died in the house before the police arrived. The alleged intruder had a long history of criminal activity and had just been released from prison a few days before the incident, police later revealed.

The incident happened just a few hours after the home was broken into and several items were stolen, including two laptop computers. After the robbery, the students inside the home heard a noise and found that someone had entered the home through a side door to the garage. The sword in question was three to five feet in length and was razor sharp. In Baltimore, possession of a sword is legal, and the use of the weapon in self defense appears to be legal, though there has been no word yet about whether any charges will be filed. In Baltimore, there is no requirement to back away from an intruder before using deadly force to defend a home or a person’s life.