Theodore Wafer was convicted last month of second-degree murder for shooting Renisha McBride through his screen door, despite his claims of self-defense. The case had angered many in Detroit, especially those who saw racial overtones in the shooting (Mr. Wafer is white). “In some sense, the constant claim that people need guns for self-defense encourages people to define themselves as being in that situation,” says Adam Winkler, a professor at UCLA’s law school and the author of “Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. In the Detroit case, Wafer was asleep on his recliner last November when he heard what he described as a loud pounding on his door at 4:40 am. He said he feared someone was trying to break in, and couldn’t find his cell phone.

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