The Reasonable Man Rule

The law differs from state to state. Some

states require you to retreat in the face of  a

threat before you can use deadly force.

Some states don’t. Some states even

establish a legal assumption that you were

threatened in certain circumstances.

But a good thing to remember that will keep

out of legal hot water almost anywhere in the US is the “Reasonable Man Rule”.

Just about every jurisdiction permits you to

use deadly force to defend yourself or another

if you can articulate the imminent fear of

death or great bodily harm. The reasonable

man rule comes into play in that if a

reasonable man were to weigh your actions and 

decide that yes, he would have felt in danger

of imminent death or great bodily harm if

put in your situation, Your use of force will

“likely” be found to be justified It’s ultimately going to come down to,

“how well you tell your story” and “if your story matches up with the physical evidence and testimony

of any witnesses”.

Lets look at an example  1. and see how this

would play out.

1. A much larger guy grabs you by the shirt,

   raises a fist, and makes some demand “give

me your wallet, watch, whatever”.

A.  Is your life really in danger?

Beating someone to death would (could) take time

and ALL this guy wants money.

Realistically, your life is not in danger if you send him away with your valuables.

B. If this guy gets the impression that you

are reaching for a weapon, he might be able

to wrestle it away from you.

Could the much larger guy kill you? At the

time he grabs you, are you in imminent fear

of death or great bodily harm?

Aren’t you making a pretty big assumption

that if you give him your wallet he’ll leave?

Granted, that is what happens in a great

majority of strong arm robberies. But what

if this guy is the exception? The fact that in

this example, your attacker has a big size

advantage will make it easier to convince

 that reasonable man that you were in fear

of imminent death or great bodily harm.

-----Its Called Disparity of Force---------

Might he be able to wrestle your gun away

from you? Yes, that’s why you walk around

in condition Yellow and hopefully he won’t

get that close to you.

“There is one activity you

can do everything right and loose”. That is to

“FIGHT”