The system is set up this way, we pay for the public defender and pay if we catch them and retaliate.
The dirtbag has no money, he is just a pawn in the scam so they have to get the money from the victim.
We pay when they rip us off, we pay for their public defender if caught, we pay for the 3 hots and a cot for the short time they are incarcerated and we pay dearly if we administer street justice if we catch them.
It is an unholy trinity of judges, lawyers and criminals.
They let them go to do it again and again this is what feeds the machine.
They take a dim view of you damaging or killing their chargees, without them them the money mill would grind to a halt.
All I got from our sheriffs was a lecture on not lying in wait for the thieves ripping me off and that they would jail me if I did anything to them.
They are more concerned with protecting the perp than the victim.
I quit reporting anything, they are useless as teats on a boar hog and you wait around all day for them to take a report and a lecture outlining their dirtbag protection order.
Forget the gun, you will lose everything you own if you use one it is cheaper just to let them steal whatever they want.