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When Deadly Force Is Involved: A Look at the Legal Side of Stand Your Ground, Duty to Retreat and Other Questions of Self-Defense
Self-defense, as a legal concept, is easy to describe but difficult to apply. Generally, a person who is without fault may use reasonable force or defensive force for the purpose of defending one's own life or the lives of others, including, in certain circumstances, the use of deadly force, provided there is no reasonable alternative to avoid it. When someone begins to parse the words of this description, however, he or she runs immediately into a maze of self-defense laws that appear to be at odds with each other.Bruce Lawlor clears up the confusion by identifying the major issues that surface in most self-defense cases and by describing how the law has dealt with them historically. Its purpose is not to provide legal advice, but to illuminate the path that must be taken to decide whether a claim of self-defense is valid. It examines a variety of issues, including the duty to retreat and stand-your ground laws, what is a deadly threat, when is fear of mortal danger reasonable, and even what happens when a person mistakenly shoots some in self-defense. When Deadly Force Is A Look at the Legal Side of Stand Your Ground, Duty to Retreat and Other Questions of Self-Defense brings a bit of order to the confusion behind self-defense.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 17, 2017
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April 29, 2023
Shoot first and hope no one asks questions later? Not!
This is an outstanding book for understanding the laws for using deadly force. Anyone who thinks they can shoot first and not know how to properly answer questions later owes it to themselves, their families, and their friends to read this book…now.
Let me start off by saying I’m not a totally unbiased reviewer. I was Bruce Lawlor’s squad leader at West Point for less than a month. I met him on his first day as a new cadet at the United States Military Academy. Over the next few weeks, my respect for this amazing person grew and grew. It appeared he already knew virtually everything we were to be teaching him and his classmates over the next couple of months of Cadet Basic Training. It looked to me on the first day of weapons class that he could already disassemble and assemble an M-16 blindfolded. Therefore, I was extremely disappointed that he left West Point after just about three weeks. Over the years, I have often wondered what happened to him. Not remembering his name, I was stymied in finding that out. Just recently, however, I did some research and finally found his name, then discovered he not only went on to have a brilliant career but is an author as well. No question I would then buy and read his book.
As far as Mr. Lawlor's credentials, you’ll read in his Amazon bio that he is a retired Major General. On Wikipedia, you’ll learn much more. For example: “Major General (Retired) Bruce M. Lawlor (born January 24, 1948) is a retired United States Army officer [Army National Guard]. He is prominent as the first commander of Joint Task Force-Civil Support. In addition, he was one of five White House staff members who wrote the plan to create the Department of Homeland Security, and he was the first DHS Chief of Staff.” Not only that, he earned a doctor of science degree in engineering management, a law degree, and a master of science degree in national security studies.
Extremely well qualified to write on the subject of employing deadly force in self-defense, Mr. Lawlor takes the reader through 15 legal scenarios (stories) with a chapter devoted to each, all the while introducing and building upon legal concepts to help readers understand the foundations and requirements of the legal use of firearms in self-defense. One is left well-educated in the complexities and strategies of defending oneself with guns, with numerous reminders to become familiar with the specific laws of one’s state. In his final chapter, Mr. Lawlor goes through the many decision points a prosecutor goes through on how to proceed in deciding whether or not to charge or acquit a person who thought they were legally defending themselves. While this was very well done, if the author was to ever update his book, I would urge him to add a decision tree as an illustrative addendum. I was not able to quickly find one elsewhere and am tempted to develop one myself with his book as the basis.
All in all, this is a very well-written, well-researched book on a topic that is becoming more and more important as the days go by. Highly recommended!
Of possible interest for those interested in self-defense, here's a book on winning strategies used throughout history by 87 master strategists Strategic Advantage: How to Win in War, Business, and Life
This is an outstanding book for understanding the laws for using deadly force. Anyone who thinks they can shoot first and not know how to properly answer questions later owes it to themselves, their families, and their friends to read this book…now.
Let me start off by saying I’m not a totally unbiased reviewer. I was Bruce Lawlor’s squad leader at West Point for less than a month. I met him on his first day as a new cadet at the United States Military Academy. Over the next few weeks, my respect for this amazing person grew and grew. It appeared he already knew virtually everything we were to be teaching him and his classmates over the next couple of months of Cadet Basic Training. It looked to me on the first day of weapons class that he could already disassemble and assemble an M-16 blindfolded. Therefore, I was extremely disappointed that he left West Point after just about three weeks. Over the years, I have often wondered what happened to him. Not remembering his name, I was stymied in finding that out. Just recently, however, I did some research and finally found his name, then discovered he not only went on to have a brilliant career but is an author as well. No question I would then buy and read his book.
As far as Mr. Lawlor's credentials, you’ll read in his Amazon bio that he is a retired Major General. On Wikipedia, you’ll learn much more. For example: “Major General (Retired) Bruce M. Lawlor (born January 24, 1948) is a retired United States Army officer [Army National Guard]. He is prominent as the first commander of Joint Task Force-Civil Support. In addition, he was one of five White House staff members who wrote the plan to create the Department of Homeland Security, and he was the first DHS Chief of Staff.” Not only that, he earned a doctor of science degree in engineering management, a law degree, and a master of science degree in national security studies.
Extremely well qualified to write on the subject of employing deadly force in self-defense, Mr. Lawlor takes the reader through 15 legal scenarios (stories) with a chapter devoted to each, all the while introducing and building upon legal concepts to help readers understand the foundations and requirements of the legal use of firearms in self-defense. One is left well-educated in the complexities and strategies of defending oneself with guns, with numerous reminders to become familiar with the specific laws of one’s state. In his final chapter, Mr. Lawlor goes through the many decision points a prosecutor goes through on how to proceed in deciding whether or not to charge or acquit a person who thought they were legally defending themselves. While this was very well done, if the author was to ever update his book, I would urge him to add a decision tree as an illustrative addendum. I was not able to quickly find one elsewhere and am tempted to develop one myself with his book as the basis.
All in all, this is a very well-written, well-researched book on a topic that is becoming more and more important as the days go by. Highly recommended!
Of possible interest for those interested in self-defense, here's a book on winning strategies used throughout history by 87 master strategists Strategic Advantage: How to Win in War, Business, and Life
Displaying 1 of 1 review