Michigan CCW Law- When Is It Legal To Draw?
Q: I realize that the Michigan law is much more forgiving in the use of deadly force than many of the other states in the area. I would like to know how much legal and civil responsibility is undertaken in doing so. For instance. I know that the response by me has to be equal to the threat... fists for fists, sticks for sticks, guns for guns. However, a guy is threatening me and is much larger than me, fighting him with my fists is just as dangerous as if he had a gun. Is it illegal for me to pull my gun to stop his advance in this case? If it is legal, what are the civil complications?
A: -This sounds more like a question for your lawyer. Anyway, are you positive that the law in your state specifically says the response has to be equal? It doesn't make sense. Most states mention "deadly force". In the hands of almost anyone greater than 12 years old, a baseball bat can exert deadly force. -This is one of the most asked questions that comes up in the CCW classes I helped teach, it's not as clear cut as you might suspect, depending on who taught the law portion of the class we got a different point of view about when you can either draw a gun or use deadly force for self defense, one of the main points on this is that you must be able to justify your actions, also if you had a means of escape, for example: your walking down the street and someone walks past you and punches you in the mouth then asks for your wallet, you draw your gun and shoot him, your going to justify your actions by saying you felt that the threat to you was immediate, and felt your life was in danger, now the prosecutor is going to ask you did you see a gun, did you have a means of escape rather than shoot him, why didn't you run away from the situation and call a LEO. I can sit here and give you a bunch of different plays on that same situation, but the underlying rule is whether or not you had a way out of the situation rather than shoot, the variable in all this is whether your local prosecutor is a good guy or a criminal coddler,or if there are other curcumstances that prevented you from running away (you have severe arthritis etc...) you have to justify your actions, and technically speaking you can't pull your gun to scare someone away, it's used to defend your life. I have my own personal opinions about how I would handle different encounters, but I'm just relaying what was mentioned in the law portion of the classes, I assume you already took a class, if not take one, or take a refresher class because the question you asked should have been thouroughly covered. -it is only lawful to use deadly force (of any kind) when a "reasonable person" would be in fear for their life or in the case of rape (The rape is a MI law). Brandishing a weapon is unlawful, any time you use deadly