Quote Originally Posted by litewavve View Post
But if there was no child on board, don't you have the right to stand your ground even at the risk of escalation?
Not really, no. If you have an option that de-esclates the stuation, you have to attempt that avenue of resolution first unless you can prove that attempting that avenue would put your life in greater danger.

i.e.: You are standing on a bridge and a guy is coming at you 40 yards away with a knife. You can run down the street, jump over the bridge side, or stand and fight. If you jump over the side, you get seriously hurt or die. If you run down the street, you could escape. You stand and fight, one or both gets hurts or dies. If you draw your gun and shoot him, a case could be made you disregarded an avenue of de-esclation. If you run down the street and he's catching you, now you turn - draw - and shoot him. There is no case against you.

Same situation but the guy has a gun. running down the street would put you in jeopardy of getting shot in the back. There is no case against you if you drew and shot him.

These are hypatheticals and very general in nature, but I've had more than one conversation like this with a prosecutor when we were trying to figure out if charges were going to be brought against a subject of one of my investigations. You never hurt yourself legally when you can show you attempted other options to de-exclate a violent confrontation. It negates proof of mens rea of the crime.