Use of Force: Preparing to Defend Your Family
In my blog, MakeSafe, I write about steps we can take to make our community safer. Some of my earlier posts touch upon the importance of paying attention when driving, about obeying traffic laws, about important legal and social issues facing our community, about preventing and responding to house fires, and about being safe in the home. Never before have I written about actually intentionally causing or inflicting pain on another person. Yet in the context of self-defense, the two topics are inseparably linked.
When it comes to making and keeping ourselves and our families safe we must be prepared to defend ourselves. It should not come as a surprise to any of us that often times people break the rules that keep us safe; the rules that protect us. When this happens, we have the responsibility to stand up and protect ourselves from ongoing or future harms caused by others. Most often, we can meet this responsibility though passive acts like defensive driving and conflict avoidance. However, in extreme cases when people are actively intending to hurt us or take away our property, we may be put in a position of actively protecting ourselves from danger. This action is commonly known as “self defense.”
Washington state recognizes self defense as a justifiable response to a real or perceived threat. Specifically, the law states:
The use of force upon or toward the person of another is lawful when used by a person who reasonably believes that he or she or another person is about to be injured in preventing or attempting to prevent an offense against the person, and when the force is not more than is necessary.
The use of force upon or toward the person of another is lawful when used in preventing or attempting to prevent a malicious trespass or other malicious interference with real or personal property lawfully in that person’s possession, and when the force is not more than is necessary.
The person using the force may employ such force and means as a reasonably prudent person would use under the same or similar conditions as they appeared to the person, taking into consideration all of the facts and circumstances known to the person at the time of and prior to the incident.
So that’s it.
Clear as mud.
Even I, a trained lawyer, have trouble understanding exactly what these rules say. Stated simply, if someone is threatening either you (or someone else) or your property, the law recognizes your right to use force equal to the threat. You have the right to self defense.
Now what?
Many local private institutions offer training in self defense and other martial arts. Two of them are Vancouver Family Magazine advertisers:
- World Class Martial Arts (3415 SE 192nd Ave. Suite 108, 360-883-3399)
- East West Martial Arts (6204 NE Highway 99, 360-695-6845)
Another resource, the Vancouver Institute of Self Defense (Firstenburg Community Ctr, 700 NE 136th Ave., 360-487-7001) offer free women’s self-defense clinics at various churches and at the YWCA in Vancouver and Camas.
When push comes to shove, nobody wants to be in a position of needing to defend themselves from the aggressive acts of others. But if you are ever put in that position, you want to be prepared with the knowledge and skills necessary to protect you and your family. When the time comes, you need to know how to handle a given situation and to be prepared to take immediate action.
