The Main Objective for Using Deadly Force

Will You Remain Lawful If You Use Deadly Force?

Today’s firearms focus: ‘The main objective for using deadly force’ within the context of lawful self-defense.

When a person brings unlawful deadly force against you, your main objective cannot be to kill the attacker, even though they are trying to kill you. Instead, the main objective should be to only use enough deadly force ‘that is necessary to prevent your death or serious bodily harm.’ And this objective reasoning is founded on the moral basis that life by its very nature prohibits an individual from using human freewill to end another’s life which isn’t an active deadly threat to people.  

You cannot kill anyone unless that person is in the act of attempting to kill or gravely injury you or others. To do so in any other situation is to commit Murder.

All people have a right to prevent murderers from killing. And Florida Use-of-Force law makes it very clear that “prevent” isn’t synonymous with “killing”. Therefore, when you point a loaded gun at a person actively threatening you with deadly force, your mindset should be to prevent and not to kill. It’s a moral fine line which you must address and implement into your mental and physical self-defense skillsets.

A lawful, law-abiding person does not desire to commit murder when they are forced against their will to prevent the murdering of themselves or others in their company. To prevent the killer from killing without killing them is the ‘only’ objective for the lawful law-abiding conceal carrier.

And I strongly assert that, achieving this objective depends mostly on the actions of the murderer and not the actions of the lawful preventer.  Ultimately a legal system would make the final determination if the killer ceased committing the act of murder during prevention, per the evidence produced in court.   

It is therefore imperative that you use only enough deadly force to ‘prevent the attacker’s murderous intent’. Any amount of deadly force more than that subjective fine line of force, is illegal, and will in a majority of cases result in the felony charge of Murder.

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