TexasCHLforum.com

JayCee wrote:

LJM wrote:This is the part that hangs me up.
pulling a gun for .500 of a second and defusing the whole situation
What are the odds of defusing versus escallating the situation. If the OP has done nothing Wrong and the aggresive drivers are intent on harm or the "Gangbanger has just been Challenged!
RETREAT is the safest option.

Statments like this make me think many of you haven't even been in so much as a schoolyard brawl much less an actual self defense scenario. I have, on both counts, several times. Gang members are like cockroaches, they scatter when threatened and are not in greater numbers. Besides that isn't there the chance for escalation in any 'threat of force' scenario?

Also FWIW the word should be defuse, not diffuse. You're removing the fuse fro ma bomb, not misting a plant.

Now you've gone and done it. Several of the respondents on this thread are either active or retired law enforcement. I personally know one of them has probably been a cop nearly as long as you've been alive, if not longer. Others here are combat veterans in the nation's various wars. You really are speaking from an uninformed position. I would not go any further down that road unless you're really prepared to back it up.

One can have plenty of experience with violence, including violence perpetrated by really bad people.... get shot at, legally deploy and use a firearm.... etc., etc., etc., and still have a clear-eyed view as to what the law allows, and what it doesn't - most particularly when that is their damned job to know it, unlike you. You certainly don't have to pay any attention to what they say if you don't want to, but it would be foolish on your part if you don't, and it becomes a waste of their time. Those members who have posted opinions opposite to your own have taking the time to do so because they have a genuine interest in helping you to get squared away in your understanding of the law. You don't appear to be inclined to take advantage of the advice.

Earlier in the thread, you said: "I don't currently have a CHL so I'm not familiar with the law 100%. I'm just trying to get as much info from the experts here as I can." That turns out not to be the case. What you're looking for, in truth, is for someone to endorse your misunderstanding of the law, and you're not finding it. So you argue about it, and disrespect their experience?

Please. Do me a favor. Pay, like the rest of us have paid, to take a CHL class, and get taught exactly what you've been told here. Then argue with your CHL teacher about it. Maybe he'll refund your money and throw away your paperwork. Maybe then you'll be convinced.

Or not. I don't care.

"Self Defense is a defense to prosecution" is a major point that too often gets overlooked. Self defense doesn't mean you won't get prosecuted. It just means that it can be a legally valid defense if you are prosecuted. But if you are going to claim that defense, then - and I am no lawyer, so I can't say for certain that this is a legal fact - it would seem to me that you then have the burden of proving that self-defense was in fact necessary. And that's where the rubber meets the road. It would seem to me that self defense as a defense to prosecution places that burden on you, rather than the prosecution, and if there were other viable alternatives to the use of deadly force available to you at the time, then you may have a very hard time proving that deadly force was justifiable.

It seems like, in both scenarios you describe, there were alternatives available. And, honestly not trying to pile on, but as Keith B pointed out, making a show of your gun is chancy. I think you were lucky that time. But what if your antagonist was likewise armed and not particularly afraid of your gun? There's always the risk that displaying your firearm might actually escalate rather than deescalate the situation, and then you've already have revealed what could have been a tactical surprise on your side. Also, what if a cop happens along just then and sees your exposed firearm on the seat? Too many what ifs...

Now, I say all of that knowing that it is darn hard not to be scared in those kinds of situations - been there myself, and maybe just a little pee came out. And as a person whose mobility and ability to get physical with someone are limited, the point at which things might escalate to my use of a gun might arrive sooner than for someone with more options available to them. But it seems that, as long as you are in your vehicle, and you are not boxed in to where you cannot escape, then you still have options available to you - not the least of which is to simply drive to the nearest police station, park out front, and call then on your cellphone to let them know what is going on.