Bringing it All Together
It has been said here, and rightly so in my opinion, that no one should ever shoot a firearm at anyone else unless there is no other way to protect life and limb.
That might seem to preclude any reason to know the law. Just don't shoot unless you have to. Simple, eh?
In a perfect world, yes.
To be sure, no one should ever,
ever be looking for justification for shooting anyone.
But in real life, things are not always so simple. If one does not shoot in time, one may suffer grievous harm. If one shoots at the wrong time, one may end up losing everything in the courts, criminal and civil, even if one's actions are ultimately found to have been justified.
So, the armed citizen has to understand all kinds of things. Just to name a few, consider the following:
- What is meant by ability, opportunity, and jeopardy?
- What is a forcible felony?
- What constitutes an imminent threat?
- What is necessary to support a "reasonable belief"?
- What is "serious bodily harm"?
- What is meant by "preclusion"?
- What about actions short of shooting an attacker, such as dsplaying a weapon, or a warning shot?
- What constitutes excessive force?
- What if he is facing the other way?
Those are just a few important things. There are also the "tactical" realities. For example,
- What is it likely to take to stop an assailant?
- How quickly can one do so?
- Is trying to shoot the most effective thing to do first in every circumstance?
- How can one best avoid being shot or stabbed?
There's more to it than just deciding to never shoot unless it is necessary, and there's more to it than knowing something about use of force law. There's more to it than marksmanship.
Not only that, there's more to it than being prepared for a violent encounter. There's the whole strategy of avoiding a dangerous situation in the first place.
That's why we call this forum strategy, tactics, and training.