“Under the law, you can’t just THINK you were being threatened.
You have to BE threatened before you threaten the other party.
You had better be sure of your situation, because trouble is sure to follow even if you are justified.”
Close, but there is a bit more to it. You have to believe, as a reasonable person, that you are under threat of life or bodily integrity. Just because you are not is not nearly as important as reasonably believing that you were.
This is why it is justified to shoot people with realistic replicas that act as if they are threatening to shoot you. A reasonable person could not tell the difference, so a reasonable person would assume the “gun” was real, and act accordingly.
I paint orange tips on all my guns so that I can carry legally in the open. /S
We sure have some dumb laws in this country.
When I was a kid, all the kids toted around 22s and 12 gauges and all things in between.
Pistols were frowned on, but i don’t recall a lot of gun violence back then.
No one was going around brandishing.
It was all out in the open but it was not threatening.
I still think brandishing is a bad idea.
Brandishing is a threat that is not followed through on.
It marks a person.