Is It Legal to Defend Yourself?

Is It Legal to Defend Yourself?

When you’re faced with danger it seems obvious that you should be able to defend yourself. However, it’s important to know your state laws regarding self-defense so that you can stay out of hot water in a defensive situation.

There are a few things you need to remember when it comes to self-defense. These rules of thumb will help you to stay out of trouble with the law and still be able to protect yourself.

First, you should never use more force than needed to defend yourself against a threat. This rule requires interpretation. Basically if you feel that someone is going to harm you physically, you have the right to use force to defend yourself.

If you’re trained in martial arts or another self-defense program and your assailant doesn’t seem to be, you can’t use more force than necessary. It requires training to determine your assailant’s skills, but usually the law can be interpreted in favor of the victim. Don’t think twice, use your self-defense skills to disarm or incapacitate the assailant.

If at all possible you should avoid deadly force. However, if you feel that your life is in danger or that a crime is going to be committed such as rape, you can typically use deadly force as required.

Once you feel that the threat is over, you need to stop using force. For example, you can’t seek revenge on an assailant hours or days later, but you don’t have to retreat if you’re in your own home or if you still feel threatened.

You should also remember that self-defense means that you are not the original aggressor. When you initiate an altercation you’ll be responsible for any harm that you visit on someone else. Self-defense only protects the person being attacked, not the attacker.

If you have to use force on someone, it’s important for you to be able to provide an account of what happened to law enforcement. You’ll need to be able to describe the situation, location, time, and any signs that you felt you were being threatened.

You’ll need to provide details about the movements of the attacker and your movements for self-defense. You’ll also want to evaluate whether or not you think the assailant is using some type of mind altering substance.

Do not take this as any type of negative statment regarding law enforcement officials; if you have to use any type of force in a self defense situation, remember, the police officers are doing their job. They are not there to establish guilt or innocence they are gathering information. Be very mindful of how you explain the situation and the reasons you took the steps you did. Make sure that you contact a good attorney, to protect your rights.

In general, self-defense is your legal right. But if you take force too far you could be the one in trouble with the law.

Understand your state’s laws and abide by them as much as possible. However, when you’re in a life or death situation do whatever possible to protect yourself.

Perhaps you would be interested in teaching your loved ones how to avoid the potentially threatening situations without having to use any self defense techniques. Click here to learn more.

In the next post in this series, we look at learning 3 New Krav Maga Self Defense Techniques that you will want to practice!