In Italy you can harm someone physically only to defend people (self-defense, which of course also applies to your family or any bystander) , not to defend property. I guess that most European laws work like this, and I agree with this attitude.
I also agree with that. I wouldn't want to live in a society that is okay with killing or otherwise harming someone for stealing or breaking into someones home, because it would profoundly change how criminals act, and I'm also not a sadist that enjoys harming other people.
If someone breaks into my home it could be annoying, or maybe I will even experience fear to some degree, but I am also insured, so it wont hurt me that much, as long as burglars generally don't feel the need to protect their lives with weapons.
I would protect myself an my familiy by force if I needed to, but I wouldn't do it just to protect some stuff that someone tries to steal.
In most American states, forcing entry into an occupied dwelling is presumptively considered a threat to life and limb.
I'm not aware of any state in which one can legally defend property alone with deadly force, but it's always legal to resist force with equivalent force. Many states have rescinded "duty to retreat" laws, which means that you're under no obligation to yield to illegal force used against you no matter where you are.
It's not merely "defending property" if someone's trying to, say, carjack you at gunpoint, and you shoot them first; as soon as the assailant threatens you with violence, you're entitled to defend yourself.
Of course it is legal to always use equivalent force in Austria. If someone threatens your life by pointing a gun at you, you are allowed to use potentially lethal force.
It's just that burglars here do not bring weapons with them (because they do not expect their victims to have weapons), so you cannot assume that your life is threatened, just because you see someone in your house.
Of course, that might be different in other countries.
'Some stuff?' I can see your house has never been burglarized. It's not simply 'oh someone stole my MacBook and other stuff, now I get a new one from my insurance'.
It's someone (or several people) rampaging through all your possessions. Ripping open every closet, tearing everything out, going through all your personal stuff, stealing your expensive suit (you know, the one you got married in), stealing your credit and insurance cards, your passport, your letters from the bank with the security codes. Taking your grandfather's watch, the silver thing your grandmothers gave you. Going through every closet, stealing the spare keys of your car, your bike, your house... You can't sleep the next few nights as they now have keys of everything. You need new keys and what to do about your car, your bike? They also took your backup USB disks. Those contain your documents, your projects, your logins and passwords... It will take you months and thousands of dollars to get everything like it was. You won't feel save again for quite some time...
When I was younger my family got burglarized, and, while it was definitely unpleasant and enough "expensive" - we weren't insured - psychologically it wasn't so shocking. Of course, the subjective experience is, by definition, subjective.
Some objects are replaceable, some have personal value to me, and it is generally annoying to replace keys and documents, but it wont take you thousands of dollars and months of work to fix that.
An insurance here that covers burglary (among many other things like accidentally damaging something and so on) costs about 200€ per year. And it will replace anything that was destroyed or stolen.
You might lose some things that have personal value to you, but I hope you wouldn't kill or harm someone just to get your grandfathers watch back.
