Hello again everyone. Welcome to Washington Gun Law tv. I am Washington Gun Law President William Kirk. Thanks for joining us. Hey, for those of you who geek out on this channel regularly, we have opened up a request line. So if you guys got ideas for videos, you click on that link right there. It's down in the description box as well, and you tell us, and you know what, we might end up doing a video because you had such a good idea. Today is one of those examples. I want to thank one of our loyal viewers, Chris P, he's a Washington subscriber. Chris sent me this question, less lethal means of self-defense, IE pepper spray and stun guns. We often talk a lot about firearms, which makes sense because Washington Gun law, but I've often wondered about laws pertaining to pepper spray and things like that. Is it assault to spray an attacker and run away? Well, Chris asks a really, really good question and one that I think we should have a discussion about today because I think it's going to give you a lot of food for thought. So today, let's spend a few minutes and let's talk about the legality of using non-lethal weapons.
Okay, before we get going too far down the road, we're going down proud to announce that this video is being brought to you by Right to Bear. That's right. Legal protection for self-protection. Listen, good lawyers aren't cheap. Cheap lawyers aren't good. You're not truly prepared unless you have right to bear back. You, you will always get an attorney answered hotline, so you will always have a confidential phone call. There are no cap limits for either civil or criminal defense. This covers all forms of self-defense. So from a fist to a firearm, from a fat lip to a dead body, you are covered and you will have some of the nation's most passionate two A attorneys in your corner fighting for you. And right now, if you visit my friends@protectwithbear.com and you use the promo code Wgl L, you'll receive 10% off. Listen, you need to protect yourself so that you can protect them.
Visit my Good friends@protectwithbear.com. Okay, here's what we're talking about today. We are talking about the use of less than lethal weapons such as pepper spray, mace, stun, guns, and things like that. Thanks to Chris P, one of our loyal subscribers out here in the People's Republic of Washington for giving us that idea. Before we go through the scenario, let's set up the hypothetical, the what if that we're going to operate from today. And the what if is, is you are lawfully in a location and you now have a would be attacker advancing upon you who is clearly showing the willingness to use unlawful force against you. In addition to that, we are going to put a limitation on this hypothetical, which is, although they're about to use unlawful force against you, there is no reasonable interpretation that would show that you are an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury or that anyone else is in such threat.
And therefore, for the purposes of this hypothetical, the use of lethal force would technically not be lawfully authorized in this scenario as it sits right now. Okay, Chris, you're the guy who's in that situation. You now have two options. Dude's coming at you. He's way bigger than you. He's younger than you, he's stronger than you. He's probably got the advantage to beat your ass. So what can you do? Well, you can hunker in, you can stand your ground and you can try to fight him fit straight up. See how that works? Okay. And do you have the right to use force against this person? You absolutely, positively do, but does that force necessarily need to be hands-on? Because let's face it, when you go hands-on with an attacker, that means their hands are on you as well, and a lot of things can happen and many of them are not good.
So in this situation where the attacker is advancing upon Chris and Chris himself is an imminent threat of having unlawful force used against him. Can he deploy pepper spray or mace or things such as that? The answer is he most definitely can. He absolutely most definitely can because under our scenario, we remember that we get to use force so long as the force we use is one necessary, two, reasonable both subjectively and objectively and three proportional. Under this hypothetical, Chris is encountered with unlawful force being used against them, but it does not rise to the level of unlawful lethal force being used against them. Chris is entitled to use whatever reasonable force necessary to defend himself. He could punch his lights out, he could try to do a leg sweep, or he could stay 10 feet back and absolutely let him have it with the pepper spray.
Under any one of those scenarios, Chris, the use of force there is not lethal. And so as long as it was necessary, as long as it's deemed to be reasonable and as long as it's deemed to be proportional, you're in no trouble with the law. And under this hypothetical, the use of non-lethal force to repel non-lethal illegal force being used against you is absolutely within the confines of the law. That is the legal inquiry. Now, I don't get into tactical things very often. I leave that to the people who are experts in that field, but I have been trained quite a bit myself, and I will just tell you this, that anytime conflict can be resolved without you having to go hands-on with the perpetrator is a much better scenario than you have to actually physically engage in hand to hand combat. So for that reason, many of the tactical people that I had been trained by, we'll oftentimes coach that you should carry both a lethal and non-lethal type of weapon with you, and it is for that very reason.
Now, under this scenario, Chris had you sprayed the guy with a bunch of pepper spray and he continues upon you, and the pepper spray is not deterring him well then your level of fear, the imminent threat that you're facing may rise to a point where you could use more force at that point. But again, that would be on a case by case basis. The bottom line is, folks, is that when you are using mace pepper spray, things such as that, it will always, always be analyzed as the use of non-lethal force. Listen, if you guys got any other questions about this or anything else related to what's left of our second amendment rights or anything else related to self-defense laws, you guys should know how to get ahold of Washington gun law by now. If you don't, that's okay. That information is down there in the description box. Remember the link down below also, if you have some video ideas, is down there for you as well. In the meantime, let's everybody remember that part of being the lawful and responsible gun owner, like we talk about all the time here, is to know what the law is in every situation, how it applies to you in any instance that you may find yourself. Until next time, thanks for watching and stay safe.
YouTube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCzDGJol2nI