When is self defense not self defense?

trooper3316

You could not claim self defense in your example for several reasons.

-By agreeing to meet and "settle this", you are a willing participant.

-As soon as you seen the axe, you would have an obligation to retreat. An axe is only deadly in close proximity. By keeping your distance, there is no threat.

-Telling someone to stop or you will shoot has nothing to do with it. There is no requirement to warn someone, so him ignoring the warning has no legal merit.

-Once he is down on the ground, he has no way to deliver a deadly blow, so again there is no threat.

-Once the threat stops, you must stop. The threat stopped when he hit the ground, so the force against him must stop.

-Possessing a gun illegally can cause more legal troubles. Even if you can argue self defense, you can still face charges for the gun.

-Self defense is an "affirmative defense". This means it is your obligation to prove you had the right to use it.

WTF?

You know the answer to that Ken. Self defense ended as soon as the imminent threat of death of bodily harm was removed.

Adam M

Your grammar is horrendous! I could barely understand your question. Learn some grammar man!

Crouching Monkey Hidden Hippo

self defense stops when the threat is neutralized. You do anything past the time there is no threat, you are responsible for that. Or even using excessive force isn't really 'self defense' either.Someone comes at you using fists to kick the crap out of you for instance and you pull a gun and shoot him point blank in the face, that overstepped the whole self defense reason.

garden girl

That would be murder.

Darkcity

Its Murder because if you are using self defense you are defending yourself. They continued to attack him after they were no longer in danger. And the fact that they agreed to settle the matter in a fight would show that they were getting themselves into danger and not avoiding danger by defending themselves.

cold grey Ash

While that is a really distorted and hard to follow example, I would say if you show up to a fight, you should expect trouble of some kind and it wouldn't be self defense, as you willingly came to the fight.

If, let's say a person is walking through the woods and someone comes at them with an axe, the person being attacked pulls out his hunting rifle, shoots the guy and the guy falls down and can't get up, then the gun guy hits him and kicks him. That I would say is self defense, but at the same time, maybe a little over board. He would not be convicted in a court of law if there are witnesses or evidence to prove he started it.

Politically Wrong

At least manslaughter. Most likely homicide. Let the jury decide, with ALL the facts.

Alice

That's an intense hypothetical situation. If the guy holding the axe is still intent on injuring the other people. Like if he has a malicious look on his face then its still self defense. If he's just sprawled on the floor weakly holding the axe then I would think its murder. They should have just called the cops when they saw he was no longer a threat. They only should have shot again if he raised the axe at them.

john w

It depends on who has the best vulture...er...Lawyer: if I have a good enough Lawyer, I can chase you down, beat you up, stomp your face into the pavement and have YOU put in jail because YOU hurt MY foot with your face! 'The times they are 'a changing...' in the bad old days, all I had to be was white and you any other color! Didn't need a Lawyer at all. The maggot cops, vultures and carrion eating dog judges would put you in jail for 20 years without parole for NOT having a softer face...lol:(

Eric Mills

self defense is to keep yourself safe and unharmed. By agreeing to and initiating the fight you wave all notion of self defense.

dont get me wrong, im all for a good all-american *** kicking, but if your worried about self defense, just dont get involved. OR. get a concealed weapons permit. best self defense avaliable, depending on what state you live in.

Brittney Leigh

Self Defense is defined by the law as matching the force against you.

That is not selfdefense, it was until they shot him again, hit him in the face and kicked him. Shooting him can be considered selfdefense since an axe can kill you. And shooting can kill you.

lmkbabe147

If someone threatens you, it's self defense.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjWn9xzLe_0gKfvZFkvg9qbsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080829114047AAud5mw

^^Easy 10 Points...^^

kagen_4

Murder, you can't shot someone (justifiably) just cause they said they were goin to kill you with an axe....you would have to get struc first or he would have to swing the axe close enough to hurt you...

chrystalkouris

Because they pulled an axe first, The weapon first. It is self defence.

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