An excellent article from Shawn Vincent of CCW Safe referencing our friends Chuck Haggard and Tom Givens.
https://ccwsafe.com/news/always-be-the-defender/
Legendary lawman and use of force instructor Chuck Haggard says “the goal of self-defense is to break contact” with an attacker. It is not to win a fight or to kill the bad guy. The goal of self-defense is to come out of a potentially violent confrontation unscathed. Sometimes that means fighting, but more often, it means de-escalation and avoidance. Firearms instructor Tom Givens, founder of the famous Rangemaster Tactical Conference, says, “I give people a double-your-money-back guarantee that you’re going to survive every single violent confrontation that you don’t get in.” Criminal defense attorney and National Trial Counsel for CCW Safe Don West says that making an effort to de-escalate or avoid a potentially violent encounter not only increases the likelihood of surviving but also of escaping any legal liability associated with a use of force incident.
The core principle of self-defense is that the use of deadly force is only justified when a defender has a reasonable belief that they face the imminent threat of great bodily injury or death at the hands of an attacker. In our last article, we explained how a defender who starts a physical confrontation, a “first aggressor,” or a defender who baits an attacker into a fight, a “provocateur,” can lose the right to make a legal self-defense claim. If a judge rules that the defender in a homicide case was legally the “initial aggressor” or the “provocateur,” then the court can deny the defendant’s lawyers the ability to argue self-defense at trial, and they can refuse to provide jurors with a self-defense jury instruction...cont'd.
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