Escalation of Force and Self-Defense

The game “Rock Paper Scissors” is a childhood favorite. Two or more players gather together and, at the count of 3, either show a fist or a hand with two fingers outstretched (scissors) or a flat fist. The rules are simple: A paper can cover a rock, scissors can smash a rock, and if you display one of the three, you win. You win if you don’t get smashed or cut by the other two. It was as follows. First, a man spotted another man shoplifting in a Fred Meyer. He decided to confront the shoplifter himself, instead of alerting the store employee. The shoplifter became angry and began to threaten the do-gooder. The do-gooder, not wanting to be threatened, pulled out a canister of pepper spray from his pocket and sprayed the shoplifter. That should have ended the confrontation. But instead of crawling into a cave, he pulled out a flare-gun and threatened the do gooder again. The shoplifter then ran off, and the do-gooder pulled out a handgun. He believed he had been the victim of an assault. This would be a fun story to watch if it was captured on the store surveillance cameras. And this brings us to this month’s theme: escalation and reasonable use of force in self defense. In Washington, only a merchant may detain suspected shoplifters. A private citizen cannot do so unless the item is worth more than $750. At that point, it becomes a felony. The private citizen can use reasonable force to hold the person and hand him or her over to a police officer. If the value of the item in question is less than $750, only a merchant or an employee of that merchant can make a citizen arrest for shoplifting. For the purpose of this story, let’s give the do gooder the benefit of doubt and put the value above $750. But when the shoplifter began to threaten the do gooder (he was 17 year younger than the do gooder), the did-gooder decided that pepper spraying the shoplifter was justified. Justified? Probably. We all know that a flare gun is better than pepper spray. I wonder why pepper spray didn’t do better because the shoplifter still had the physical ability to draw the small flare gun after being sprayed. I don’t think a flare gun is safe. It could cause serious injury or even death. I won’t second-guess the do-gooder but I could have shot the guy then. Let’s pretend that it did happen, and the shoplifter was killed. The headlines would have read, “Man killed for shopping.” Would the good-hearted person have been arrested? It depends on what the police heard. If the do-gooder had simply said, “I want an attorney,” he was likely arrested. There were witnesses, and hopefully the flare gun threat was brought to light. If there hadn’t been a flare gun, the police in that jurisdiction would have released him without any charges. Most police in our region are pro-armed citizens. What if the shoplifter was simply physically threatening the do gooder? I would predict a long legal process for a do-gooder that, while interdicting a criminal in progress, used excessive force (or frankly, by drawing the handgun or threatening to shoot). Across the country, the right to self-defense is tempered with the necessity of only using the degree of force that a reasonable person would use in the circumstances. The reasonable man doctrine will be used to analyze each use of force. What would a reasonable person do under the same circumstances. Was the force used under the circumstances reasonable? The next step is to download your free Storm Tactical printable target pack. This impressive target set contains 62 printable MOA targets with DOT drills for rifle and handgun ranges. The target grids and bullseyes are measured in MOA. Subscribe to the Gun Digest newsletter and we will send you your print-at home target pack immediately. Enter your email below.