I have talked about self-defense before (They’re Comin’ Right For Us: Fixing Self-Defense); in that one, I argued that you should have to be correct about being threatened.
It’s not enough to “feel” threatened.
Your feelings are not more important than anyone else’s rights, so you only get to claim you were defending yourself if you were actually attacked (or immediately threatened).
This time, I want to focus on the “defense” part.
It’s only defense if you didn’t start it.
This is actually part of California’s self-defense laws, so that’s nice.
But the news the past few days have made it pretty clear that it’s not part of the laws in a lot of other states, and this bit of stupid is getting innocent people hurt and killed.
This should be pretty damn obvious.
It’s even clear in the language: the person who starts a fight is “attacking”, the other person is “defending”.
If you started it, you’re not defending so you can’t claim self-defence if you hurt someone.
So don’t start none.
Won’t be none.
