The Law of Self Defense: The Indispensable Guide to the Armed Citizen

Recently purchased this book to familiarize myself with the law regarding Self-Defense. Attorney Andrew Branca does an excellent job distilling Self-Defense Law into five easy-to-remember core principles: Innocence, Imminence, Proportionality, Avoidance, and Reasonableness. He breaks down each of these legal aspects of Self-Defense Law into simple explanations that are easily understood by the common layperson, and provides several examples in case law for each principle to illustrate how following and disregarding each of the principles can help or harm your legal claim of Self-Defense. Once these aspects are explained, he also details the trial process, and provides a useful strategy for staying within the bounds of Self-Defense Law and interacting with Law Enforcement appropriately, if one ever has to make the legal claim of Self-Defense. This book is well worth your time if you have ever considered everyday or concealed carry of lethal and non-lethal means of Self-Defense. Also, Attorney Andrew Branca has a pretty informative podcast Q&A each week that discusses recent news events as they relate to Self-Defense that I find interesting and useful. Haven't signed up for full access membership to his podcast, but I would imagine it is just as useful as these two resources. I highly recommend.

I will join with many of the other reviewers and say that this book is a must read for anyone who has any type of self-defense weapon on their person or in their home. After reading the book, I've come to the sober conclusion that the law doesn't seem to favor the ordinary person who is simply trying to defend themselves. In order to prevail, it would seem that each person needs to have a law degree from Harvard, and the ability to slow down time in the event of lethal force situation. This is the case because the legal system, chops up your deadly force encounter, which is measured in seconds, into an esoteric academic exercise where the actions of the parties are scrutinized at the the nano-second level. One can almost imagine a panel of ancient philosophers, psychologists, and scholars evaluating who is in the right and who is in the wrong at any given fraction of a second in the timeline of events. In our system of justice, such reflection is done by the police, the DA's office, your defense attorney, and a jury of your peers -- folks who know nothing about the law. The author presents a very sobering view of how the legal system works for those who choose to defend themselves in a violent encounter. Yes, you may have killed the bad guy, and you may feel that you are right, but if the legal system choses to pursue your actions, you will have two outcomes; the price tag of your legal defense and your freedom, or, 20 years to life in prison. On several occasions, while reading, I thought that death or serious bodily injury might actually be a good option given the real possibility of jail for the rest of my life, a fate that might be assigned by a gun hostile jury or some real error I made in the deadly encounter. For all of those folks with high capacity magazines, heed this warning. Every single shot you fire in self-defense will be evaualted by the DA. As the author pointed out, there was a case where a subject fired 6 shots. Three were deemed self-defense, while the last 3 were considered attempted murder. The defender was convicted on the 3 "bad" shots and got a life sentence plus 90 years. So, a magazine with 20 rounds is a joke. If you shoot 20 rounds in a self defense case, you are in for a world of trouble with the justice system. Lastly, know your state laws. The author goes to great length to compare differences in state law for self-defense. Infact, the last third of this book, is a comprehensive digest of every state law for a meriad of serif-defense issues. This book is a must read for all gun owners. The purpose of this book, in my opinion, is to form a proper mental attitude for a self-defense situation. This book really makes you think about the "un-locks" you might have in order to draw a weapon and use it.

I purchased this book after seeing a positive review on a discussion forum from another forum member who took a live course with Andrew. I found it easy to read, entertaining and informative. I am a lawyer (but no experience with this area of law at all since law school years ago), and think it is well-suited to the general reader, as well as to lawyers or others more familiar with legal concepts and approaches - the author doesn't over-simplfy conplex concepts, but also makes the subject matter easily approachable. I also very much appreciate that the author maintains a website with up-to-date law revisions and new case law, as well as providing commentary on recent news stories / reports of defensive (or, regrettably, not) firearms use. There were a few instances of material / concepts that were substantially repeated only a paragraph or two away from previous, similar instances (*not* in the chapter summaries that are provided after each chapter) that a better job of editing might have addressed, but that did not, IMHO, detract from the overall value of the information presented or the style in which it was presented and explained. I think this book is an incredibly valuable resource for anyone who owns a firearm that might be used in a self-defense situation, and without hesitation would recommend it to the responsible firearm owner.

Great book if you want to learn the Laws of Self Defense

As a license nra firearms instructor i highly recommend this book it has a lot of valuable information that can make a difference

This book is a solid resource for anyone interested in self-defense. The techniques are explained clearly, and it emphasizes awareness and prevention just as much as physical action. A great addition to any personal safety toolkit.

I bought the law of self-defense by Andrew F Branca as the first step in my concealed carry journey. This book will get you in the right mindset to safely, and practically understand what it means to carry a firearm for protection. Within the book are tips, real life examples, and legal nuances to self-defense with a firearm. This is an absolute must have for anyone thinking about whether carrying a firearm is right for them, and bridges the gap of basic knowledge needed to feel confident carrying a firearm in a self defense capacity.

I am impressed with this book. I live in North Carolina and recently took a concealed carry course (which is required here prior to a concealed carry permit being issued). I bought this book because it was well reviewed. I didn't know what to expect; but, I must say, I am very impressed with this book. It is impossible to write a book that is thorough and explicit on the laws of concealed carry in all jurisdictions. That said, this book does a very fine job of approaching this task with the ever present caveat that laws in all jurisdictions are fluid things. The bulk of the book explores fundamental legal principles involved in deadly force applications, along with case law discussions applicable to specific historic instances in which deadly force was used. I honestly did not expect that this book would be so captivating. It is well written, in an informal language, that makes it very easy to comprehend and very difficult to put down once one has begun reading it.

Very interesting. Not fully applicable to Canada but some concepts are interesting.