1. Regarding the color codes of awareness, if you are at condition red, there is a greater than 50% certainty that your life is in danger.

2. The fundamental rules for safe gun handling include: (1) Treat all firearms as if they are loaded; (2) Always keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction; (3) Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot; and (4) Keep the firearm unloaded and safely stored until ready for use (a firearm designated for self-defense is considered to be in use).

3. Outside of your place of abode, you may only use deadly force in self-defense if you believe the threat of death or great bodily harm exists.

4. When selecting a firearm, size, weight and caliber are considerations to keep in mind.

5. The levels of proof are: Mere suspicion, articulable suspicion, probable cause, preponderance of the evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt

6. There are five possible responses to a life-threatening encounter:

  1. Freeze - The victim of the attack may be so overwhelmed or surprised by being threatened, the victim may become incapable of any action;
  2. Submit - Simply giving into the attacker;
  3. Posture - Combat without combat. Words, sounds, gestures and body language are weapons used to dominate, intimidate and subdue another. Depending on circumstances, the attacker and the victim, one may try to out-bluster the other until one backs down or flees.;
  4. Flight - Retreat or running away from the situation;
  5. Fight - The use of reasonable force to prevent an attacker from harming you

7. Most, if not all states provide some means to allow private citizens to carry a loaded firearm on their person and in public (outside their home) for personal defense.

8. If you are attacked by someone with superior fighting skills, disparity of force can exist. The challenge is you must know your attacker possesses these skills at the time of the attack.

9. Hollow-point bullets are designed to expand when they enter the body.

10. When asked by a law enforcement officer if you are armed, in Minnesota you do not have to answer that question.

11. According to the National Rifle Association, more than 2 million assaults are prevented each year by making a potential attacker aware that the would-be victim is carrying a firearm.

12. Depending on your jurisdiction, there are up to five elements of self-defense law:

  1. Avoidance - Escape if you can
  2. Innocence - Don't start or provoke the fight
  3. Imminence - The attack has started or is about to begin immediately (AOJ-P analysis)
  4. Proportionality - Equal force (you cannot use deadly force against a non-deadly threat)
  5. Reasonableness - You made good decisions under the circumstances

If a prosecutor can disprove any of the five elements, your self-defense justification collapses.

13. When making a claim of self-defense, you have to admit that you did in fact shoot your attacker.

14. Components that make up the ammunition cartridge include: Bore, rifling and primer.

15. In order to use deadly force against another, the attacker must truly have the ability to kill or cause great bodily harm. This "ability” may come in the form of having a dangerous or deadly weapon or a disparity of force exists between the victim and the attacker. Select all the items below that represent a "disparity of force".

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