May / Can / Should: Lawful Use of Force

One way to speed up your response to threatening situations is to reduce doubt.  A great way to do that is to know, beforehand, exactly what the law says about what you can and cannot do.

“Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion”

This common “fight or flight” experience is due to our synapses firing faster.  Another typical byproduct of adrenal chemicals hitting the brain is “information hunger.”  Because your brain is working faster, you will likely feel starved for information.  When that happens, you do NOT need to be guessing about what you MAY, CAN, or SHOULD do.

Heloderm’s Use of Force courses teach you what the Arizona Revised Statutes (Title 13 Chapter 4) say about threatening or using physical force or deadly force.  All 4 of those are different things, and each is appropriate in different situations.  Reliable statistics are hard to come by (because it is often unreported), but something like 16 out of 17 times, when an armed citizen brandishes a firearm at a bad guy, the problem chooses to go away without bloodshed.

But brandishing a firearm inappropriately, or in the wrong situations, can get you jailed for aggravated assault.

After we go through exactly what the law says, we do role-playing exercises letting YOU decide what to do in life threatening encounters.  Because we live in a 360 (actually 720) degree threat environment, in-person role playing works best for practicing making life or death decisions.  We will do that in smaller groups, wearing masks and eye protection, unless the you live with the people you are training with, or have been vaccinated against COVID-19 .  If you do not have eye protection, we will provide it for you.

Class size is limited to 10 students.  Didactic portions will take place in an auditorium, so we can have plenty of social distance between families or individual students.  Cost of the course will be $50, which covers blank ammunition as well as classroom rental.  Previous Heloderm Use of Force course alumni are welcome to join us after lunch to participate in scenarios, at no additional charge.

Bring your pistol, holster, and a cover garment.  If you only use your pistol for home defense, or leave it in you car, bring it and whatever you store it in.  You will NOT need live ammunition for this course, but we will be working manipulations and other skills.  Heloderm will provide barrel inserts and other training aids.

We will run a series of decision making exercises about civil unrest.  Our hypothetical scenario will involve food riots threatening a neighborhood in the not too distant future.  If you own a long gun to protect your homestead, bring that as well.

Your coach, George H, is not a licensed attorney, but he was a law enforcement Use of Force instructor.  George has trained, taught, and / or been involved in actual field encounters along the entire force continuum, including the use of verbal commands, empty-hands techniques, impact weapons, chemical dispensers, tasers, edged weapons, firearms, even surface-to-air missiles.  As a special agent assigned to internal affairs, George investigated uses of force, getting perspectives from both the giving and receiving ends.  His court experience includes deposition in a 30 million dollar lawsuit.  He earned a Bachelor’s cum laude in Administration of Justice.  The information he has to share with you can keep you out of jail, and lawyers out of your house.

Please contact us to arrange a Use of Force class.

Teleconference option

Via teleconference, we can act out different situations in front of a camera, so you get to practice deciding if, when, and how you want to intervene.  This turns your computer screen into an interactive, live action firearms simulator (providing certain precautions are made to protect the neighbors, and your expensive computer, from negligent discharges).

The best way to make better decisions under stress is to practice decision making, in a controlled environment, before the need to decide arises.

If you would like to arrange a Use of Force training session via teleconference, please reach out.