American Pirates

So the SEALs defeated a trio of Somali Pirates, and even in my somewhat cynical view, the Captain is a hero for offering himself as a hostage to free his crew. All's well that ends well, except that the Pirates have now vowed to kill Americans on sight.

The whole episode evoked the principles of one of my most passionate issues to me. I'm going to skip over the whole International/Maritime/Admiralty law specifics here, and just deal with concepts.

Start with this: You are sailing through an area where there is known Pirate activity. You know that if you put out a distress call, highly trained and armed people will arrive to help as soon as they can. Don't you still want to be able to defend yourself?

This is where most Americans are with criminals. For the majority of Americans, they live within reasonable traveling distance from a criminal with violent tendencies. If they call for help, it will arrive as soon as possible. However, in the intervening time, if you are unarmed, there is nothing keeping them from killing you, harming you, or taking you hostage. It is a basic human right to be able to protect one's self. That right can be supplemented by police, but not replaced by it.