Not in this town. If you make no effort to physically get away from the person threatening you, or even attacking you, prior to defending yourself; you stand a very good chance of being brought up on assault charges. You can't just haul off and let them have it for talk, or even coming at you if you can get away from them.
Now whether or not you would be convicted? That's another story.
Originally Posted by
lil brown bat
I'm sure everybody read it; however, your statement above is probably not accurate, at least from a legal standpoint. If someone announces their intention to harm you, in many (most? hard to say, self-defense law has a gazillion local variants) situations you do have a right to respond with force appropriate to defend yourself. That doesn't mean it's always the best course of action, but you don't always have a legal duty to retreat when explicitly threatened.