How To Protect Yourself In Case of Attack

South Carolina Self Defense Laws

We at Strand Security are very much concerned with your personal safety, not ‘just’ your security!

Why?

Years ago Heather was robbed at gun point. After this traumatic experience, she’s used her knowledge and experience (about self defense) to educate women and young girls about the importance of self defense. Strand Security has been offering FREE CLASSES to their customers under the Myrtle Beach Self Defense umbrella. Community members can also attend for a small fee. These classes have been fun, educational and most of all, empowering to women and girls.

• We want women to know how to prevent an attack.
• We want women to know how to fight back during an attack.
• We want women to feel empowered enough to fight back during an attack and know of ways they can get away.
• We want girls to feel empowered too!

However… can knowing and practicing self defense protect you at all times?

Read on…!

Concealed Weapon Permit

In these classes, we don’t only teach and practice self defense techniques, but we also talk about ways to stay safe and to prevent being a victim. We understand that we can’t always prevent crime from happening, but learning to recognize warning signs, and not putting yourself into a bad situation to start with can do a lot to prevent an attack on your person.

While we have these discussions in class, the subject of carrying a concealed weapon comes up every single time!

We can’t make a judgement call for you whether you should be a concealed weapon carrier, or not. What we can do is give you some additional resources for you to check out so that you yourself can make a more educated decision about how to protect yourself and those you love.

What Does South Carolina Law Say About Self Defense?

We searched google, of course and found the following articles.

Please read these at your convenience and learn as much as you can.

Defending Your Castle – Self Defense in South Carolina

From the piece

To convict a person of murder or voluntary manslaughter based on the use of deadly force against another person who is attempting to enter his home, the State is required to negate that person’s claim of self-defense. Under South Carolina law, a person is justified in using deadly force in self-defense if: (1) he was without fault in bringing on the difficulty; (2) he was in danger of losing his life or of sustaining serious bodily injury or he actually believed such; (3) if his defense is based on belief, his belief was not unreasonable or, if his defense is based on actual danger, the circumstances would warrant the fatal blow; and (4) he had no other probable means of avoiding the danger of losing his own life or sustaining serious bodily injury than to act as he did.

Avoiding Charges for Self Defense With A Weapon in South Carolina

From the piece

South Carolina has a “stand your ground” law which protects those who use force in self-defense. The stand your ground law is found in the Code of Laws in Title 16, section 16-11-440.

According to this law, if a person is not doing anything illegal and that person is attacked in any place where he or she has a right to be (including your home, your work, or a public place), that person has the right to stand his ground ground and “meet force with force, including deadly force,” as long as he “reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury to himself or another person or to prevent the commission of a violent crime as defined in Section 16-1-60.”

For stand your ground laws to protect you, you must have actually believed that you or someone else would be hurt or that a violent crime would have been committed if you had not taken action. Your belief of an imminent risk of harm must have been a reasonable one.

Self Defense in South Carolina

From the piece

Self-defense in South Carolina is a concept that many people probably think they know and understand or at the very least have heard of it.  However, what is self-defense and what self-defense is not is probably drastically different from what the average person understands.  This article discusses the law on self-defense and how it is applied in South Carolina.

A Detailed Look at South Carolina’s Stand Your Ground Law

From the piece

According to the Protection of Persons and Property Act (“PPPA”) a/k/a “Stand Your Ground” law, a person has the ability to protect himself or herself, even through the use of deadly force, if someone else is unlawfully and forcefully entering a home or occupied vehicle, or if someone is removing or attempting to remove another person against his will from the home or occupied vehicle. A reading of the current law doesn’t appear to require it to be YOUR home or vehicle, so long as you were invited to be in the home or vehicle by the owner or person living there.

The PPPA DOESN’T apply if:

• The “intruder” has a right to be in the home or occupied vehicle, such as being a resident, an owner, a tenant, or titleholder to the property or vehicle. We caution you that if you invited this person into your home, and then later kick them out, you are likely not entitled to protection under the law.  On May 7, 2014, the South Carolina Court of Appeals issued an opinion in State v. Manning which stated that “Stand Your Ground” does not apply if the person was invited into your home. If you shoot someone and go to trial, the jury may still be told that they can consider other defenses, such as the old Castle Doctrine Law or the law of self-defense, but immunity under the “Stand Your Ground” statute is out.

• The person being removed from the home or vehicle is a child, grandchild, or person under lawful guardianship of the “intruder.”

• You are engaged in unlawful activity or using the home or vehicle in furtherance of unlawful activity. The law does not define “unlawful activity.” However, if you were conducting a drug deal in your house when the incident occurs, you are probably not protected by the statute.

• The “intruder” is a law enforcement officer performing his duties, so long as the person defending himself knew or reasonably should have known it was a police officer.

Plan. Prepare. Protect.

Whichever way you want and need to protect yourself and those you love, do it with a plan.

Know you rights!

If you want to learn self defense, get in touch with us at Strand Security. Fall classes are starting back up. As always, classes are free to our Strand Security customers.