What Every Gun Owner Needs to Know About Self-defense Law

**wizardtho** · July 14th, 2010, 11:07 AM

What Every Gun Owner Needs to Know About Self-defense Law,
by Marty Hayes, J.D. was just released and is now available
to the public free of charge. Click this link to read a
copy of this 16 page discussion regarding the laws of self-
defense.

http://www.armedcitizensnetwork.org/...ayes-SDLaw.pdf

**billamj** · July 14th, 2010, 01:00 PM

Decent information but I believe that they should have hit the, "state laws vary" and "It is incumbent on you to know the laws in your state" button quite a bit more than they did. Basic information was covered fairly well though.

**PA Traveler** · July 28th, 2010, 10:11 PM

I thought it was good, and based on Bill's comment I was looking for "consult your local laws etc" which I saw quite a bit. I sure would like to have a solid interpretation about the section on what you do / don't say when the police arrive.

**Datalogger** · August 9th, 2010, 03:30 PM

Only part way through it, but its a great read so far! Thank you for posting this!

**GunLawyer001** · August 9th, 2010, 03:48 PM

It's always useful to spend time thinking about important matters calmly. I'm not a big fan of the "good in all 50 states, sort of" school of thought, but it's worth the read.

He quotes Massad Ayoob, and says that you just need to memorize this simple thought: "Deadly force is justified only when undertaken to prevent imminent and otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm to the innocent.”

That doesn't really leap out at me as a simple guideline. What I tell my workshops is this:

Don't pull the trigger unless the alternative is worse than bankrupting your family and going to jail.

This is a pretty good rule, it means that you won't shoot a fleeing robber to stop him from escaping with the 7/11's insured receipts for the day, because you really don't give a crap whether 7/11 has to file a claim, or loses a few thousand dollars. You would not take comfort in your jail cell, knowing that their parent company The Southland Corporation, showed slightly higher profit for that day than they would had you not fired.

On the other hand, if you blow away a rapist before he penetrates your daughter, that might in fact be a decision that you'd make again, even after the DA crucifies you in a kangaroo court. It's better to be in jail and get visits from your living wife and daughter than to be free to visit their graves.