Essential Self-Defense Law Part III: Maintain Innocence

By Salvatore

Read ‘Essential Self-Defense Law Part I: Imminence’ Here

Read ‘Essential Self-Defense Law Part II: Appropriate Force’ Here

In the first part of this three part article I laid out three essential principles of self-defense law that all armed citizens should be familiar with: understanding of imminence, understanding of appropriate force, and the maintenance of innocence in a violent encounter. We have thus far discussed the first two. In this final installment we will discuss the maintenance of innocence if involved in a defensive use of force.

This final principle should be straight forward, but it has cost a lot of otherwise good people their freedom, or at least a lot of money and stress. If you are going to argue that you used force for legitimate self-defense then it usually works out best if you indeed appear to have done so. Especially when witnesses get involved things get very precarious and even very honest self-defense incidents can get muddled. Generally, though, using any level of force should be your last resort and if you can de-escalate a situation, or hopefully avoid it all together, that should always be your first choice. If you end up using force in a fight that …Read the Rest

Source:: Concealed Nation