Gun grabbers in the U.S. are a subset of a larger group of weapons prohibitionists. While most American anti-gun activists accept the idea of self defense with less-than-lethal weapons, their overseas cousins are not nearly so broadminded. And that fanaticism could have some unintended consequences.

As many of you probably know by now, a 17-year old Danish girl successfully used pepper spray to defend herself against a possible “Rapefugee” in Sønderborg, Denmark. She’s now facing a fine for doing so. The reason being that pepper spray and similar less-than-lethal weapons are illegal in Denmark. Thus the anti-weapon extremists have set up a system wherein victims of violent crime can be charged for defending themselves.

But as Eugene Volokh points out, the weapons prohibitionists’ zeal could have some unanticipated results…

Note also what I call the anticooperative effect of law. Some people might react to this by not carrying pepper spray. But if a woman is carrying the pepper spray illegally and successfully fends off an attacker — or unsuccessfully tries to do so — will she go to the police so the attacker can be caught and his next attack prevented? Or will she keep quiet, since she doesn’t want to be prosecuted herself? (Note that pepper spray possession is apparently just punishable by a fine: not likely to greatly deter people from carrying, but likely enough to deter many pepper spray users from going to the police.)

I have to admit that my first reaction to the story was “Why did she go to the cops?!”. I doubt I’m the only American gun owner to have that reaction. It’s this nearly instinctive reaction that makes counting defensive gun uses in the U.S. so hard to do. Most of these involve simply showing a firearm to a potential attacker. The attacker, not wishing to be injured or killed, sensibly leaves. But after that, who in their right mind would call the cops to report themselves for what could be seen as “brandishing”? It’s this fear of prosecution for what is, in reality, a righteous act that causes so many gun owners to not cooperate with the police.

In a perfect world, the ideal reaction would be for the gun owner to report the incident so that, as Volokh points out above, “the attacker can be caught and his next attack prevented”. But, anti-gun extremists have created a legal climate that exposes the law abiding to criminal liability. The end result is that the criminal gets to walk away and try again with someone who isn’t armed.