Even criminals get to defend themselves. If he's not been convicted of any felonies, he would even have kept the rifle legally.
Of course now that he's used A GUN, to defend himself, he's in Big DooDoo, this being New York, and too close to NY City.
Of course this is true, and I never indicated that I would deny them self defense.
I have also sat in a courtroom when a robber explained that he didn't want to kill the guy he was robbing, but the guy fought so hard that he (the robber) thought he was going to be killed, and it was just self defense.