Your right to self-defense ends once you've neutralized the threat, says Richard Ryan (left). PHOTO BY RICK HUSTEAD

If you've ever studied the relationship between the law and self-defense, you've probably found yourself a bit mystified. Today, we have more laws on the books than at any time in recorded history, but the real problem is that they're punctuated with words like "justified" and "reasonable" that are open to interpretation. What is reasonable to one person may not be reasonable to another. If you factor in culture, upbringing, religion, morals and life experience, you begin to fathom why we have lawyers, judges and juries.

Some martial arts teachers take the time to shape their students into people who would never use violence the wrong way, even in selfdefense, but others seem oblivious to this obligation, focusing on fighting ability and ignoring lessons about when and when not to fight. Sadly, with the proliferation of the mixed martial arts, the budolike moral values inherent in the traditional arts often fall by the wayside in the pursuit of pure fighting ability.

A popular adage holds that those who live by the sword often die by it. A modern interpretation of it might read: Those who learn how to fight without receiving instruction in the legal and moral aspects of the use of force often regret it. They're flirting with disaster.

So how do you acquire practical education in the laws of selfdefense without obtaining a law degree? It's not as hard as you think. Years ago, I developed a division of my Dynamic Combat system called Quick Defense; it's designed to teach simple selfdefense and crimeprevention strategies to the public. It features a formula that summarizes the essence of selfdefense while keeping you out of legal trouble should you have to defend yourself. I call it the Legal Action Survival Triad, and it encompasses three basic concepts: avoid, escape and resist.

The first thing you should try to do in any potentially dangerous situation is avoid it. Many people put themselves in harm's way when they could have easily avoided the situation. While an ambush may force you to fight immediately, most situations have warning signs.

If you can't avoid a situation, your next priority is escape. That can mean talking your way out of trouble, walking or running away, jumping a fence, getting into a car or deescalating emotions with confrontationmanagement techniques – anything that gets you free from the situation without throwing a punch. You must do everything you can to get away until there's literally no escape.

This is where many people go wrong. Say you're having words with some guy in a restaurant and you try to escape by walking to the parking lot. He follows you and taunts you the whole way. You turn to confront him, and a fight ensues. You drop him to the pavement, where he smacks his head and is hauled away in an ambulance. Months later, you find yourself in legal trouble because he has brain and neck injuries and is suing you. In court, the big question is, Why didn't you continue to escape from the threat? It's argued that because you were in a parking lot, you could have walked away, yet you turned to engage the enemy. The more proof you have that you did everything within your power to avoid and escape, the more it makes your assailant look like a predator.

The final factor in the triad is resistance. Sometimes you have no other choice but to use violence to stop violence, with the key word being "stop." The common denominator in all selfdefense laws is that you can use only enough force to stop someone from doing what he's doing. Once the initial threat is neutralized, you must stop using force. When an assailant stops, runs away or gives up, you cannot continue to exert force unless you can prove that you were still in danger. There's an old saying: It's better to be tried by 12 than carried by six. I agree that you have to do whatever it takes when things get nasty, but I also know how easy it is to get carried away once you're thrust into a violent encounter. The trick is to stay calm and use common sense and restraint.

If you do everything within your power to first avoid and then, if necessary, escape from a situation, chances are you'll be fine. If you're forced to fight and you use only enough violence to stop the attacker, it'll be very hard to convict you of any crime.

About the author. Richard Ryan is the founder of the Dynamic Combat Method and co-founder of Integrated Combative Arts Training. For more information, visit http://www.blackbeltmag.com and click on Community, then Black Belt Authors.

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