Learning the Five Elements of Self-Defense

A Highlands News-Sun Newspaper Article for July 12, 2023

The main objective of this Florida Gun & Self-Defense column is to educate gun owners about gun law and self-defense law. When considering gun ownership it is imperative to know that ignorance of the state and federal laws is not an excuse for unintentionally breaking those laws. It is the purpose of this weekly column to inform and educate gun owners of their personal responsibility as defined under the law.

Secondly, I strongly suggest before you handle a gun, to learn Colonel Jeff Cooper’s Four Rules for Safe Firearms Handling; One, treat all guns as if they are loaded with a round in the chamber, even when the gun is empty. Two, never point the muzzle at anything you ‘don’t’ want to destroy. Three, keep your finger off the trigger until your gun sights are on the intended target. Four, always be sure of your target and what is beyond it.  In addition, I would like to add a fifth point, “All bullets when fired, have a very expensive lawyer attached to them, so make sure you hit what you aim at.”

Thirdly, firearms are extreme tools designed for lawful usage, originally and primarily to save lives when under an unlawful lethal threat of death or grave bodily harm, and secondarily to hunt for food, and for sport shooting, and lastly for recreation.  

With those points in mind, today’s firearms focus will be on Use of Force Self-Defense law; there are five elements required to prove a legal use-of-force, self-defense standing, Avoidance, Innocence, Imminence, Proportionality, and Reasonableness. The following are general definitions of the five elements.

One, Avoidance, is comprised of two parts, legal and personal. The legal part is only required’ when your state requires a legal duty to retreat, if you can safely do so, before engaging in use of force. Florida however does not require a legal duty, but instead  provides the ‘Stand Your Ground’ (SYG) law, which simply means you don’t have to retreat before using force or deadly force when under a deadly or non-deadly threat.

The personal part of avoidance is part of the firth element Reasonableness in Florida’s soft SYG law, placing a responsibility to take a safe passage of escape or retreat if it presents itself, because any reasonable person would choose this option, even though you do not have the legal duty to retreat by law. If a jury believes, you had a chance to avoid the altercation but chose not to, you will be judged unreasonable and lose the fifth element of self-defense. If you lose one of the five elements, you lose them all.

However, my personal thought process is that Avoidance begins prior to any threat occurring, by being of the mindset to identify and remove yourself from risk, or to break contact, or defuse the situation. By accomplishing this, you establish the second element of Innocence, which produces a clear mindset to determine the moment of Imminence. Proportionality will then be a natural determination of a clear mindset, which ultimately produces and proves a state of Reasonableness. In fact, I argue that Reasonableness is the natural byproduct of the four preceding elements, when accomplished correctly.  

Let us continue with elements two through five. Innocence, simple means you did not instigate, nor initiate the altercation in any way. Three, Imminence, means actual physical violence is within a second of occurring. Four, Proportionality means the degree of force you respond with when attacked, is of equal force; as in deadly force is not proportional against non-deadly force. And fifth, Reasonableness, is what I call the wildcard element because it involves the entire legal systems subjective thinking, feelings, and  judgement, as to whether your actions were in all stages of your use of force event, reasonable as they believe it to be defined.

If any of these five elements fails to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt during the legal process, you cannot claim Self-Defense. These five elements are simply a framework upon which hundreds of thousands of case laws are based. And legal arguments of the five elements are often complicated and in many cases, controversial.  It comes down to, ‘did the evidence prove the defendant was ‘reasonable in his understanding of the imminent threat, and did he respond with reasonable proportionality, and or did he have a reasonable avenue of safe escape or retreat even if his state doesn’t require a retreat?

Who can achieve this level of Reasonableness when under extreme duress, adrenalin, and risk of legal prosecution? You get one shot at getting it right, and there is no do over. You stand a far better chance of surviving such an event, physically and legally, if your tactical advanced gun training was learned within the foundational context of the five self-defense elements framework. After surviving the physical battle, the next battle will be producing the evidence essential to a successful legal defense in court. Mastering the five elements in a real life threat of death is possible with the correct training.    

Firearms Facts: State Statue 790.25 (3) Lawful Uses, subsection (L).” It is lawful for the following persons to own, possess, and lawfully use firearms and other weapons, ammunition, and supplies for lawful purposes: A person traveling by private conveyance when the weapon is securely encased or in a public conveyance when the weapon is securely encased and not in the person’s manual possession;”.

Under the new permitless conceal carry law, when travelling in private or public conveyances any lawful person (as defined in Fl. State Statute 790.06) can carry a pistol concealed on your person, or you must put the pistol in an ‘enclosed case’. An enclosed case can be either a glove box, a center console with a lid, a briefcase, a zip lock plastic bag, snapped in a holster’ not on your person, in any container with a closure, all of which does not have a lock. You can ‘not’ have the pistol ‘ready for immediate usage’ while travelling in either of the two modes unless you carry it concealed, in other words the gun should not be out in the open.

Note: If you’re not travelling, and the car is parked, and you don’t want to conceal carry the gun, you can leave it anywhere you want inside the vehicle, in the open, in a case, there is no law addressing this state of the firearm. Now, I would strongly encourage that you have a gun safe securely attached to the seat or floor of the car, by which to safely store your gun until you return. However when travelling, the gun must be either conceal carried or securely encased, and not out in the open.

However, there is the following exception: When you are travelling to and from a gun range, or to engage in hunting, fishing, camping or hiking, you are allowed to open carry firearms and continue to open carry during any of these events. State Statute 790.25 section 3 Lawful Purposes.  

Firearms Fiction: It is illegal to have a round in the chamber when conceal carrying or open carrying a firearm. Not true, there is no such law. It is a matter of personal preference, based on experience and practice of the gun owner. If you know you will be able to handle the gun without producing a negligent discharge then by all means carry with a loaded chamber. If you know you have not practiced enough to be confident to keep your finger out of the trigger guard area, and to be mindful of where the muzzle of the gun is pointed at all times, then do not carry with a loaded chamber.

If you do not carry with a round in the chamber, remember you will need time to rack the slide prior to putting sights on the intended target. Practice in a safe place, planning for negligent discharges because the more functions required to bring the gun to bear on a target; the more it will likely produce mistakes. Hopefully…they’ll be harmless mistakes.  Therefore, plan and practice, to run your gun safely.

Article Sources: The five element of Self-Defense is from Andrew Branca’s book, “The Law of Self Defense”, which I do change the order of, placing Avoidance first instead of third. And, Rory Miller’s book “Logic of Violence” produce the idea to change the five elements of self-defense order.

To restate the reason for changing the order of Andrew Branca’s Elements of Self Defense order; I made this change because I mentally approach a Self-Defense event from the mindset of avoidance. Which sets a superior mental foundation for innocence, which enables a precise decision of what Imminence is in the moment of crisis, and therefore helps establish a higher level of Reasonableness. I have found Proportionality to be an automatically correct judgement due to my years of training. The other four elements require a case-by-case disciplined evaluation within the heat of the moment, and seldom are two cases ever the same.  Therein lies the challenge and thus the reason for constant education and advanced training if you so choose to conceal carry a gun.    

Today’s article published online at davidpdouglass@substack.com Highlands Guns & Self-Defense

Florida Gun & Self-Defense offers instruction in all educational levels of gun ownership, from elemental to advanced-tactical.  If you want to safely, handle your new firearm at home or at the gun range, or desire to master the disciplines necessary for lawful self-defense, custom classes one on one, or group sessions, are available. For more information, please call Dave Douglass at 863-381-8474 Learn to ‘Run a Gun’ safely and legally, to become a responsible gun owner and conceal carrier.

Dave Douglass has been a firearms instructor and trainer since 2013. During those ten years, he has applied himself to the disciplines of advance tactical and self-defense shooting, and Florida gun law and use-of-force self-defense law. Bass fishing was his second love, firearms and lawful self-defense has always been his first love. He is an adamant supporter of an original literal interpretation of the Second Amendment and is committed to education in all firearms related fields, first as a student and secondly as an instructor. There is always an element of the firearms discipline to learn and relearn, and therefore he offers this article to share that endeavor with the great people of Florida, “The Gunshine State”