The way the law reads you are allowed to use force to defend yourself or another from emminant physical harm. Fighting is not really a manly thing these days, now days it is sort of dumb. Say you get in a fight with a bum on the street, u really want to roll around on the ground with some piss stained bum? Then you have to consider that everyone is armed.

You think those 6 hispanic kids weren't armed? Odds of one of them having a gun isn't bad. Odds of one of them having a knife is 100%, most likely at least 3 of them had knives. I started thinking in terms of self protection and not macho terms.

I assume:

1. Everyone is armed.
2. That they can harm me.
3. Someone is going to come out on top and if it isnt me the other person might not stop.
4. I will harm them.

This forces me to smile or wave when someone honks at me instead of flipping the bird because i know i will use force and i want to avoid it if possible.

The use of force is only authorized during the event, you cant assume someone is about to harm you or harm them because of what they did to you. That is premeditation or revenge and it isnt legal. So if you think someone is going to reach for a knife and you shoot them it isn't legal, but if in your mind at the time they WERE reaching for a knife and you shot them while they were going to stab you then it probably is legal. A fine distinction but one that is important in court.


If you ever get into a situation never give up any of your rights until u have spoken with an attorney. No i'm not a lawyer, im an idiot on a web page but there is something to what i just wrote.