The stand your ground law can help answer questions about when action is reasonable for defending yourself or others.
A question that frequently comes up in our Utah concealed firearm permit course, a student will ask the instructor, “When is it okay to shoot someone?”
The instructor looking puzzled, asked the student for clarification and the student will ask when am I legally justified to shoot someone outside of my home in self defense?”
It seems to be a fair question in light of all of the attention the media is giving to skyrocketing violent crime all over the United States; murders, aggravated assaults, car jackings, arson and other violent crime are on the rise. Students that are in our concealed carry class are legitimately concerned for their personal safety for themselves and their family.
This article is not intended to be legal advice, but I will cite applicable Utah Laws pertaining to the use of force, including the use deadly force by a private citizen. First of all, you need to know the laws of your state in question, as laws vary from state to state. For purposes of this article we will talk specifically about Utah law and how it applies to the use of force, including the use of deadly force by a private citizen.
Utah statute 76-2-402 (Use of force in defense of a person as amended in 2019) states in relevant part that an individual may use a reasonable amount of force to defend yourself OR another person against an imminent use of unlawful force and that individual can use or threaten to use deadly force against another to defend yourself or another person against an imminent use of death or serious bodily injury to you or another person. The key words here are “reasonable” and “Imminent” . Merriam Webster’s defines imminent as “ready to take place, or happening soon”. So for example if a person uses a dangerous weapon against you, ie ( a gun), or other dangerous weapon and that person is trying to kill you with it, you would be justified under this law to use an equal amount of force to defend yourself (a gun) if you reasonable believed that was necessary to defend yourself, so long as you entered and remained at the place where this occurred, (you have to lawfully be there when this happens). Under this statute you are not justified if you provoked the incident with the intent to cause bodily harm to the person, OR if you were attempting to, or were committing a felony, OR if you were the aggressor, or were involved in mutual combat, unless you clearly communicated to the other person of your intent to withdraw from that.
Utah law has a second circumstance in which an individual can threaten to or use deadly force against someone else and that is if the individual reasonably believes that it’s necessary to prevent a forcible felony under Utah 76-2-402, some of the forcible felonies are murder, kidnapping, rape, mayhem, robbery, burglary arson and so forth, see statute for a full list of these forcible felonies,
Stand your Ground Law: Under Utah law you do not have a duty to retreat from that situation, (also known as the Stand your ground law) and under the statute, your failure to retreat can not be used as a relevant factor in determining whether or not you acted reasonable under this circumstance.
Now with that said, if I were in this situation and I were able to retreat and could do so in an intelligent manner and believed retreating would not make matters worse for me, I would do so, I am not suggesting you need to do that, but for me personally, I would from a moral position. Taking a life, even if you are justified under law is never easy and would likely be traumatic for you or anyone else, not to mention the stress of being under a criminal investigation and having to pay exorbitant legal fees, even if you were completely in the right. Another good argument for retreating, is to avoid the risk of harming an unintended person during that confrontation. This is something that happens all of the time, and it is a devastating experience.
Also, if you are asking yourself the question whether or not you can legally shoot someone, you should also ask yourself if you have the physical skills with a pistol and the mental mindset to defend yourself. Taking a Utah concealed firearms course will most likely not prepare you for something like that. You will also need to know and keep on on the current laws as they can change any year through the Utah legislature.
So in summary, you can only use deadly force to defend yourself or another person through the stand your ground law if you are facing the imminent unlawful use of deadly force against you, or another person, if you entered and remained lawfully where the incident occurred, you didn’t provoke the situation, and you were not attempting to or were in the act of committing a felony.
Utah HB 227 passed in 2021
If you find yourself in Utah being charged with a Class A misdemeanor, (or even worse, a felony) and you believe you acted in self defense, Utah has a new law that is intended to protect a person from unnecessary and costly legal prosecutions for those acting in lawful self defense.
You can request a self defense hearing and the prosecutor must prove with clean and convincing evidence that you were not acting in self defense. If the prosecutor fails to meet his/her burden then they must drop those charges and they can not be refiled. Even if the Defendant loses in this hearing, he/she still can bring up the issue of self defense in the criminal trial and the prosecutor is not allowed to tell the court that the Judge already sided with them in the self defense hearing. A great law for private citizens and police officers that are being forced into situations defending themselves or another person. The exception to this new law is that it does not apply if the person you were defending yourself against was a police officer.
Contact us if you are looking for pistol defense, or other training in these areas.
Stay safe our there and stay informed.
Phil Snyder
Retired Utah Police Officer
BCI and NRA concealed firearms Instructor