This is a really important topic, one where there's a lot of misinformation.
Remember that the whole point of self defense is to go home, have a beer and make love to your honey at the end of the day.
That means you have to make it home, be allowed to live in your home and have a honey who isn't going to beat you up. I'll assume that everyone here has enough training for the first part. If you're having trouble with #3 talk to me offline. There are plenty of resources for people dealing with domestic violence.
#2 is the sticky issue.
I'm not an expert. I'm certainly not a lawyer. If I were I still wouldn't be your lawyer. If you take legal advice from me you've made a real mistake. But I do know people who are experts.
Anyone who can scrape together the money really needs to take Massad Ayoob's LFI-1. He is an expert. He's been a prosecutor, run many many many successful legal defense teams in self-defense cases and is accepted as an expert witness by just about every courtroom where they don't actually play racquetball.
Seriously. The guy knows more about it than just about anyone around, and he gives you pretty much everything a regular person would ever need to know. When I took the course a judge and a couple defense attorneys were there as students. They said they learned more in those twenty hours than they had ever learned in law school.
Anyhow, now that the unsolicited plug is over, let's get back to the discussion.
If you're serious about self defense you need to know how to stay on the right side of the Law so that the police and courts will let you go home to have that beer.
You need to do the right thing.
You need to avoid doing the wrong thing.
You need to convince the people in authority that you did the right thing.
The Right Thing
The first thing you need here is information. What does the Law say you can do?
A lot of martial arts teachers think they know. But unless they've had special training in the legal aspects of self defense they don't know anymore than you do. Maybe less. A lot of them have a bunch of myths and legends. A lot of those are self-serving ones that are designed to reinforce the idea that their martial arts are especially deadly. Some of ths stuff that I've been told by Black Belts would have put me in jail if I'd listened to them.
So forget what your Sensei said unless he's a cop, a lawyer, a judge or has had something like the training from FAS, LFI, Modern Warrior or a similar well-respected place that has a track record of steering people in the right direction.
Cops know some things about the Law. But they're not judges or lawyers. Their job is to "uphold the peace and enforce the Law", to investigate crimes, to arrest suspects and to drink an amazing quantity of really bad coffee. More power to them. But they are generally only familiar with the little bits of the Law that directly concern their jobs, and even then a lot of them forgot the specifics as soon as they got out of the Academy. Their advice is better than most people's but it's not something to stake your freedom on.
There are people who have spent years and thousands of dollars learning what the Law is. They can tell you what it is, what it means and give you advice on how to stay on the right side of it. They are called attorneys. It doesn't cost much to go to a good defense attorney and ask him or her to look up the statutes and case law concerning self defense in the area where you live. It's well worth the investment. Besides, they remember people who have given them money. If you have to use force to defend yourself you know who to call and won't have to rely on an underpaid public defender.
The next thing to do is figure out your own definition of "reasonable", your own personal and ethical limits. That's a job for you and your conscience. I have answers which work for me. You have to develop answers which work for you. "Eat your enemies in secret" has a certain visceral appeal but probably won't get you many friends. I can't fully comprehend total pacifism, but some people live by it.
Never Point the Weapon at Anything You're Not Prepared to Destroy Buy
Another thing to remember is that if you do use physical force let alone deadly force your standards for "reasonable self defense" are going to run right up against those of the police, the prosecutor, the judge and the jury. You might not be charged with anything, but there's a good chance you will. And you will get involved with lawyers and billable hours.
Make sure that whatever you do is worth the $10,000+ it will take to extract yourself from the mess.
Someone calls you names. Is giving him the ***-whipping he's begging for worth ten grand? Probably not.
Someone is trying to stick body parts normally covered by underwear into your personal areas without permission. Is keeping them out worth that much to you? A year's worth of AIDS medicine costs at least that much. Trauma counseling can cost even more. So, yes.
A guy with an "88HH Rahowa!" tattoo has pulled a knife on a friend because she wears a head scarf? As far as I'm convinced she can't be replaced. It's worth the legal fees to keep her alive.
Who Says It's Reasonable?
Unfortunately, when you're in front of a jury of your peers it's not a jury of MTalkers. It's a jury of twelve people who couldn't get out of jury duty and probably don't get out much period. Their ideas about martial arts, self defense and your capabilities come from movies and television. If they knew anything about the subject they wouldn't be allowed on the jury.
The prosecutor is going to try and convince them that you are the love-child of Hitler and bin Laden.
The judge spends his time as God Almighty in his courtroom. He has court officers to protect him. He is overworked and probably bored. If you're lucky you won't get one who practices
pneumatic hobbies while he's presiding over your case.
The guiding principle here is:
Know what you did and why you did it. Be able to explain it to a group of ignorant unfriendly people.
Keep all that in mind. Internalize it. Live it. Avoid trouble where you can. And you might get to go home at the end of the day, have a beer and make love to your honey.
:idunno:
