Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
When I got this question the first knee-jerk response was, “Yea, you do have the right to defend yourself,” but is that really a right and to defend may or may not actually mean self-defense. So, I decided to try and find out if this is actually true or not.
What I found may or may not be accurate since most search engines I use already have search bubbles geared toward my interests as a part of how they work but regardless, the Washington Post article on, “Self-defense is a constitutional right,” says, “Generally speaking, courts rarely have to decide whether there is a constitutional right to self-defense, since all states generally recognize a statutory or common-law right to use force against another person in self-defense.” Of course, as with anything legal, etc., there are constraints to this right. I believe it is the restraints that tend to trip folks up causing thoughts of, “I am defending myself,” when in truth they are breaking the law and so forth.
A constitutional right to self-defense is unlikely to be absolute. Those restraints, accepted limitations, will limit that constitutional aspect of self-defense. Then add in the convoluted constraints such as the one that states, “Self-defense is a defense to the use of force against a person, not an animal.” Man, things can get muddled very fast and that is the point that Marc MacYoung makes in his book, “In the Name of Self-defense.” This get complicated when you have to defend yourself.
When the discussion of constitutionality arises it usually refers to the second amendment. That one involves self-defense by the use of “Arms” meaning firearms, etc. - in general (read the second amendment to clarify and validate. In a short nutshell, “The right to self-defense and to the means of defending oneself is a basic natural right that grows out of the right to life. The Second Amendment therefore does not grant the people a new right; it merely recognizes the inalienable natural right to self-defense.”
I would then answer the question with caution and the caveat that one find an attorney who specializes in law of self-defense for clarification but in essence I say, “Yes, self-defense is a fundamental right of every person in our society with constraints set by local, state and federal laws, regulations and other such legal requirements.”
Bibliography (Click the link)
Bibliography:
Benforado, Adam. “Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice.” Crown Publishing. Random House. June 2015
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