Defense/Offense

[rep1954]

At what point does a defender become the offender?

[Hal]

Short answer - when there is no longer a deadly threat....

[MTT TL]

when there is no longer a deadly threat....

….and the defender is still employing deadly force. Your state laws may vary greatly on what actions constitute an offense.

[Aguila Blanca]

Originally Posted by MTT TL

Your state laws may vary greatly on what actions constitute an offense.

Perhaps not as much as you think. It's fairly universal that the use of deadly force is an offense -- a crime. I think that's true for every state (although I am not a lawyer and I haven't researched it).

Having established that the use of deadly force is a crime, the states then go on to create some exceptions to the underlying law. Self defense and defense of an innocent third party are the primary exceptions, and it's in the exceptions and their details that the states differ.

[MTT TL]

My point was more along the lines as to what other actions might constitute an offense. Other than deadly force after the threat has ended.

[Aguila Blanca]

Originally Posted by MTT TL

My point was more along the lines as to what other actions might constitute an offense. Other than deadly force after the threat has ended.

I think that's a different meaning of the word "offense." I interpreted the title of the thread to mean when does defense (a reactive response to another's action that constitutes a danger to me) change to offense (a proactive action by me that constitutes a danger to someone else). Like the difference between the offense and the defense in football.

Perhaps I interpreted it wrong, but I don't think the OP was asking about alleged "offenses" such as trigger words, or choosing to refer to a gender-confused male-by-birth as "He" when the person has elected to self-identify as female or neuter or non-binary or whatever the gender confusion du jour happens to be. There are far too many things today that people claim "give offense," but I think the OP was asking about in a legal sense rather than a politically correct, woke, SJW sense.