First they came for the poo-flinging catapults

In the United Kingdom and other countries, one is allowed to take reasonable steps to protect one's person and property. The question is: what is reasonable? HS Daily Wire (who else?) links to a Daily Telegraph story about the police preventing the use of a poo-flinging catapult:

[F]ollowing a series of attacks by vandals on his company, Grumpy Joe [Weston-Webb], in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Notts, he restored [a] rusty catapult and equipped it to fire bags of chicken droppings at intruders if an alarm was triggered....

His eccentric methods attracted media attention as well as a warning from Nottinghamshire Police that using the giant catapult would be illegal as it did not constitute "reasonable force".

But now his business had been targeted by thieves again....

Mr Weston-Webb estimates that the combined bill for damage and stolen property could amount to £10,000.

He said that his private CCTV cameras picked up a figure entering the premises at about 11.15pm but the catapult was not primed following the police warning.

More here. Now the United Kingdom does not have the Second Amendment protections that we enjoy in the United States, which is a pity, because I'd love for the English version of Charlton Heston to loudly declare, "They will take my poo away only when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers!"