Self-defense is legal in America. That’s even true in cities like Chicago and New York, believe it or not. But prosecutors may employ antagonistic tactics in an effort to turn the righteous use of force into a conviction. Civil attorneys may do the same thing to those who defend themselves in order to score a big payday.
Remember, the jury pool won’t be a drawn from NRA Convention attendees or members of your local gun club. It’ll contain a cross-section of your community including those who viscerally dislike guns and gun owners. Many of those same folks aren’t too keen on the use of force in self-defense either.
That’s why it’s best to practice situational awareness and avoidance whenever possible so you won’t need to use force and then deal with second-guessing investigators, prosecutors, and plaintiff’s attorneys. For example, by paying attention to one’s surroundings, you can identify people acting outside of the baseline of what passes for normalcy. Those who step over that line justify additional scrutiny while you also formulate a plan if things should go sideways.
If you interrupt that bad guy’s OODA Loop (observe, orient, decide, act) by doing the unexpected to escape before they strike (the “act” part of their OODA), that’s a win. Interrupting their loop to get away stands as an even better win than going hands-on or righteously employing a weapon in self-defense. Why? Because you avoid all of the nasty by-products and aftermath of the use of force that involve of investigation, the criminal justice system and civil litigation.
If situational awareness fails you and you have to use force in self-defense, you must act to the standard by which you will be judged. You must also be able to articulate that threat and explain your actions. Your claims must also pass the reasonable person standard:
Whether an objectively reasonable and prudent person, possessing similar skills, training, and knowledge, and in the same or similar circumstances, would have shared that subjective perception.
Here’s the good news: the law does not require people to make perfect use-of-force decisions, but we’re required to make reasonable decisions. Thank you, Graham v. Connor.
If you — with the help of your attorney — can articulate the threat you faced, you will probably be fine. You might even convince a prosecutor not to pursue charges. On the other hand, if you can’t effectively articulate a threat, then you’re likely on track for a felony charge and maybe even prison time.
“But John, what do you mean exactly? This is kind of complicated!”
The easy examples involve answers for prosecutors or plaintiff’s attorneys making a big deal of the good guy (you, hopefully) using hollow-point ammunition, or carrying extra magazines, or that your gun has had a trigger job to make the pull lighter.
A quick review: I use ammunition similar to what’s used by my local police department for the same reasons, including reduced risk of over-penetration, ricochets, and fewer hits needed to stop an attack.
Extra magazines? I carry an extra magazine or two because I may have a malfunction, or might need more ammunition to defend against multiple attackers. And if police – with all their training – only make hits 25 to 35% of the time, I may miss.
“I carry a handgun with a trigger job because of the enhanced ability to accurately deliver hits on an attacker, reducing the risk of hitting a bystander.”
You may face similar questioning about why you shot your attacker in the chest, face, head or groin. You’d better have an explanation that’s reasonable.
Things really get into the gray area when it comes to reactionary time. For example, you’re on video in a defensive gun use. Bad guy has a knife about 10 feet away, but you manage to distract him by looking over his shoulder, maybe to see if it’s a cop… especially if you say something like, “Oh, hi Officer.”
Mr. Knife looks behind him, and you move off the axis of his attack, draw and fire six shots, give or take, until Mr. Knife crumples to ground.
But there’s a problem: the high definition video clearly shows the knife guy bobble his knife after the second or third shot hit him. And the knife clearly fell out of his grasp at the fourth shot. Yet you continued shooting and struck him a couple more times.
You darn sure better have good answers for these likely questions:
Why did you shoot him? He only had a knife!
Why did you keep shooting after he dropped his knife? Are you a bloodthirsty murderer?
Were you intent upon killing this man? You said you shot to save your life yet he was no longer a threat once he lost control of the knife and you continued firing.
Do you have answers in your comfy chair all relaxed and stress-free? If you don’t have answers in a relaxed state, do you think you’re going to be able to rise to the occasion while wearing handcuffs in police custody? Or when under interrogation by cops, even with your attorney present? Or on the stand in a trial where your freedom is at stake?
By the way, have you watched the “Don’t Talk To the Police” video yet? Do yourself a favor and watch it.
The answer to those questions above: It takes about six to eight tenths of a second to observe something, to process what’s happening and to decide to act accordingly – and then for that command to transmit to your hands. You stopped shooting as appropriate, but it took a bit to implement the decision to stop shooting.
The same goes for a suspect who turns away after you began shooting. Shots to the back never look good to a jury, but if you and experts can attest those rounds were fired at the end before you could react to the visual stimulus of a suspect turning away, you’ll probably gain an acquittal.
Of course nothing is written in stone. Which is why the best way to win a gun battle is to not be there in the first place.
While self-defense is legal, you’d better act to the standard by which you will be judged and be prepared to articulate the threat you faced. You carry a gun so you’re harder to kill. You need to know the law and how to articulate the threat so you’re harder to convict.
was hoping knife review.
It was a knife review and the conclusion is don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.
well concluded. besides whatever else happens, you’ll probably lose your knife.
Why Anti-Gunners Need Violence to Push Their Agenda.
https://www.ammoland.com/2025/07/why-anti-gunners-need-violence-to-push-their-agenda/
Democrats’ ‘Violent Rhetoric’ Is Precisely The Point.
https://www.ammoland.com/2025/07/democrats-violent-rhetoric-is-precisely-the-point/
By the looks of that jury, I’m guessing defense counsel slept thru voir dire.
By the looks of the jury, half of them are most likely left wingers that would want to convict you even if you were killed by the bad guy and never fired a shot.
FAKE GUN GROUPS? Let’s Talk The Dorr Brothers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ4yTRh6wPw
My first DGU: I was a little bit of a mess afterwards. I mean, for a while I could not recall all the details. I could remember seeing the guy coming at me with that big knife, I knew I was firing but I didn’t really remember it per se’ as it was more of a feeling – as it was happening. The only thing I remembered actually seeing at that moment was the bad guy, I had tunneled visioned that much as an effect of the stress response (AKA natures built-into-humans ‘fight or flight’ response), I did not remember seeing my gun or sights while it was happening and only feeling it in my hands and firing.
That’s how it was for me for a while after it ended, not remembering things clearly or at all for a while. That’s not uncommon in stress response situations – it varies, but things can be confused or you don’t remember details right away, or your sense of time or direction or body movements can be lost or distorted for a while, there can be lots of effects and it varies for each person. Its not uncommon, for example, for a stress response situation for someone to say “it was like time stopped” – that’s because for them time did stop in their awareness of it due to the stress response. So right after the incident, especially on scene, is when police sometimes tend to like to get you talking because they know its likely you are not going to recall everything right then and might say things incorrectly or leave things out that you don’t recall at the time that when looked at by a prosecutor can be exploited to prosecute you. So rule number 1 is do not talk to police telling them what happened until you have had time to recover from the stress response and can think more clearly, and, rule # 2 is get a lawyer as quickly as you can and do not talk to police without one.
That’s how sudden it was, the guy came out of – well, no where because he was just suddenly there. I did not remember seeing him coming from ‘some place’ or approaching and was simply suddenly there and coming at me. And the next thing I know the police and ambulance are there, the bad guy is dead, and there is crime scene tape and people standing around looking, and this police officer asking me questions and me muttering to him in this kinda almost whisper low voice telling him my name and him going “What? I couldn’t hear you.”
Then I snapped out of it some and spoke up and gave him my name and address and DOB then kinda went quiet staring at him. The officer asked me to sit down at the back of the ambulance and told me I might need a lawyer. The ambulance crew gave me some water and checked me out. The police then took me to the station.
They put me in a room, let me make a phone call. I didn’t have a lawyer in mind but I asked for one. So my phone call was to my then future to-be wife, who put her dad on the phone and I told him I didn’t have a lawyer but had asked for one. He said “You have a lawyer now. I’m sending one to come get you and bring you home.” then he gave me some of the best advice I had ever received – he said “Don’t answer any questions or say anything about what happened until the lawyer gets there then only speak to her and do what she says.”. This detective comes in and wants to ask me questions and I tell him I have a lawyer coming and will not answer any questions yet. But by this time I’m remembering everything and all the details.
So about 30 minutes later after telling the detective that, the lawyer my then future father-n-law sent shows up. She asks me to tell her what happened, I do, and she asks me various question and she gives me a sort of short lesson on how to talk to the detective when he comes back in and if I get stuck just look at her and ask her for advice and do what she says. She goes out and tells the detective I’m ready to answer questions, she and detective come back in and I go thorough everything answering the detective questions. He tells me hes done and hes waiting on someone from the DA office to arrive. Back then, where I lived, if there was a death involved in such an incident someone from the DA office had to come down and go through everything with the defending victim which was me in this case. So my lawyer gets me something to drink, and when she comes back in the detective and the DA lady are with her and there is another lady who sets up at a small table in the corner of the room with a typewriter. My lawyer tells me they want a written statement and the DA lady is going to ask me some questions and the statement is going to be typed out and then I will sign it then I will be able to leave. So I go though everything with the DA lady, the lady in the corner types out my statement and the DA lady hands it to me, I let my lawyer look at it, she says its ok to sign so I sign it. The DA lady tells me ‘Looks a lot like like self defense to me. You are not going to be charged with anything. You can go.”
And that was it, and about 6 hours after the incident I was home.
Now years and several DGU’s later …. The day after that first DGU I started carrying everyday without fail. It was only pure chance I was armed that day and time when it happened. I didn’t EDC back then, only carried occasionally and then a lot of times I simply put it in the car when I went in some place. But that day and time, as I got out of the car I started to leave it in the car and decided not to do so. And just as I started walking away from the car it happened.
I’ve had lots of ‘tactical defensive gun use’ type training since that first DGU. It gave me skills I would need for my wife and I both to survive when the time came – the training taught me how to engage and stop the threat quickly and effectively and efficiently and legally and how to deal with the stress response. But in all that, among some of the best training I ever got was after my first DGU when my then future father-in-law told he “Don’t answer any questions or say anything about what happened until the lawyer gets there then only speak to her and do what she says.”