Even if you have committed a crime or incited violent confrontation, you may find that Washington State`s self-defense laws do not apply to your situation. Self-defense is serious business, and it is important that you understand all the legal consequences that come with using force to defend yourself. Make sure you learn about the laws, understand which situations require a self-defense response (as well as those that don`t), and stay safe when you`re outside. Washington law states that the use of force is lawful when used to prevent a crime against another person. This means that in certain circumstances, you can use force to protect another person. Like self-defense, standing up for others requires that you use only reasonable force to protect another person. As with self-defense, the person you are protecting must not be unauthorized at the time of the incident. If you don`t know when and where to discharge a gun to defend yourself, you really need to ask yourself if you should carry one. While it may make sense to secure it safely in your home for defense, which has more established jurisdiction in favor of the homeowner, the “gray area” is important when it comes to situations outside your “castle.” If you plan to carry a gun on yourself, dive deep into your obligations as a gun owner. When it comes to firearms, there is a lot of talk about rights and less information about the obligations to use them safely. Don`t put yourself in a situation where you`re the defendant because you accidentally discharged your gun in response to a threat.

While state law allows you to use force in certain situations, there are gray areas when it comes to Washington State`s self-defense laws. Much of the grey area boils down to the word “reasonable.” Bellevue Gun Club firearms courses, such as Advanced Level Handgun 103, have all the information you need. This is a self-defense course that gives you the general knowledge you need to use a weapon, “push your skills to the limit and take your training to a whole new level.” In these courses, you will learn important skills such as how to defend against eliminations and how weapons can be useful in direct combat. To go to court, you probably have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. If you can`t afford bail, you can spend months in jail while you prepare for trial. Depending on your job, you could lose your job while waiting for your day in court. In addition, the emotional cost to your spouse and family is immeasurable and the stress of uncertainty is overwhelming. If you are lucky enough to win, you can claim legal costs, but the damage to your life is truly irreparable. Although you have all the “rights” to defend yourself, this defense can come at a high price. Washington has laws that could protect you from criminal liability if you use force (Revised Washington Code, Section 9A.16.020). Under the law, you can legally use force to defend yourself in these situations: remember to use a firearm to defend yourself or at home, make sure you face an “imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.” There may be reasons why you subjectively believed these risks existed, but you need to make sure it`s also appropriate from an objective perspective. This means that the jury considers not only what you think happened at the time, but also what a reasonably prudent person would do in the same circumstances.

These two standards don`t always fit, and your reality may not be enough to successfully assert justifiable murder as a defense. Below, we`ll discuss Washington State`s Stand Your Ground Act and the best way to clear your name and leave it behind. In order to be entitled to a jury hearing in self-defence, the accused must present evidence of self-defence; However, once the accused presents evidence, the onus is on the prosecution to prove beyond a doubt the absence of self-defence. Evidence of self-defence must be judged from the perspective of the reasonably prudent person who knows everything the accused knows and sees everything he sees. The courts will inform the jury that the self-defence standard contains both objective and subjective elements: the subjective part requires the jury to put itself in the defendant`s shoes and consider all facts and circumstances known to the defendant, while the objective part requires the jury to determine what a reasonably prudent person would do in a similar situation. A jury may establish self-defence on the basis of the defendant`s subjective and reasonable belief that harm is imminent on the part of the victim; Given this subjective component, the jury need not find actual imminent harm. People accused of crimes in situations where they defended themselves are often accused of engaging in acts that fall within the exceptions of Washington State`s Stand Your Ground Act. While the burden of proving your guilt rests with the prosecution, it is up to your defence lawyer to help you demonstrate that your actions were self-defence. So what`s in the books when it comes to self-defense in Washington State? For starters, there is RCW 9A.16.020, the “Lawful Use of Force” section of the revised Washington Code. Under the Code, the use of force is permitted for those who are not law enforcement officers in the following scenarios: If you`ve taken handgun classes in Seattle, part of your responsibility in firearms training is to understand how self-defense laws work in Washington State.

When is it permissible to use a weapon for self-defense and what kinds of scenarios would it require? Various factors can change what is appropriate in a particular situation, so it is very important to be aware of the latest laws in order to understand what is appropriate. Today, we`re going to look at what Washington`s laws say so you can better prepare in case you need to act. While it is better to assert self-defense in a criminal case than to be six feet below yourself if you are prosecuted for your decision to defend yourself with lethal force, you will face many life-changing costs. The biggest problem is the “grey area” in the analysis of self-defense and the uncertainty of juries. Make sense? As you can see, there are several reasons why violence, even deadly violence, is justified in Washington State. However, all this is pointless if you have no idea how to use your firearm in self-defense situations. Next, we`ll discuss how to gain the knowledge you need to defend yourself and use the training you`ve gained in many home defense courses when needed. This is because, given the details of the situation, your actions must have been reasonable to avoid criminal charges. For example, if you shoot someone who has driven down your driveway to turn around, it is almost certainly not considered reasonable (Revised Washington Code, Section 9A.16.050). However, if someone points a gun at you and threatens to shoot, it`s probably considered reasonable to shoot them. One of the most common defenses against violent crime charges in Washington is that the defendant acted in self-defense.