Will a person be held guilty for injuring or killing a thief?
Answer From The Annual Reading Schedule - Week 18 Notes For Exodus: Not if the injury or death occurs during the time that the thief is attempting to break in or steal something and the break-in or attempted theft is occurring at night. The phrase "the sun has risen on him" implies that the theft being spoken of in Exodus 22:2-3 is occurring at night. This makes sense because during the daytime it would be very easy to see who is stealing from you, and anyone stealing would then easily be reported to the judges, found, and punished accordingly. Therefore, most thefts were probably likely to have been attempted at night. In addition, at nighttime you cannot see if someone has a weapon in their hand or not, so it would be much harder to ascertain if the person is attempting to murder someone or merely steal from you. Due to the fact that you probably couldn't tell at night if someone's life would be in danger, self-defense, even if it inadvertently resulting in death, would be permitted.
If at all possible, I think we should try to avoid causing someone to die. One thing to consider, also, is that in the dark, in an emergency, maybe one where we are awoken from our sleep, not only may we not know if the person has a weapon – but we also might not be as accurate in our use of force to prevent a death of the person. So – because it is dark – we may inadvertently cause the person to die when our only goal was to stop them from what they're doing. Maybe a certain level of grace and mercy is shown because it's harder to know what to do in the middle of the night in the dark when you were woken from your sleep and not expecting something to happen.
However, if the injury or death is inflicted later on after the event of the theft took place, then that is after "the sun has risen on him" (Exodus 22:3) and since nobody is in immediate danger, then they would be found guilty if they went after the thief later and attacked them.
If a theft was attempted during the daytime and you could tell the person didn't have a weapon, you might be best off just letting them steal from you and then reporting them to the authorities afterwards.
In addition, another reason for the permission to defend one's self may have been to deter thieves from thinking that they can intimidate someone with a weapon and steal all their belongings at night without risk to their own life. If a thief knew that the law prohibited them from being killed at night, that might embolden a thief to be more courageous and do thefts more often.
Now, if someone comes to steal during the daytime and you see at some point they have a weapon or intend to not just steal but also harm others, if a life becomes endangered then I do believe self-defense is permitted (but we should still make our best effort to not cause someone to die). The only time when fighting back is not permitted is if someone is attacking you because of your belief in Yahushua. However, in all situations, you are permitted to flee. You are not required to just let someone harm you, regardless of the reason. Hiding or running is always an option. But if it's daytime and no lives are in danger, there's no reason to be doing something that could cause them to die.
Just to make it clear: I do not believe that believers should own any firearms except for purposes of hunting animals or eliminating problematic wild animals that are dangerous or causing issues on their land. I do not believe I could ever pick up a firearm to use on a human because it will be much more likely someone dies. Although, I will say, if there is a crazy person with a gun killing people, I can't say I am unappreciative for police who stop that person. I, personally, do not want any guns around me for any purpose and if I was going to hunt animals I would want to learn to hunt them an old-fashioned way with bows and arrows, traps, etc. and not bullets. I don't want weapons around that I could accidentally hurt someone with in an emergency and then have regret later of my decision.