You have to be state law specific. Michigan has enacted the "no retreat law" meaning if someone attacks you at any time or place, you have the legal right whoop ass. The old law made it illegal to shoot a guy with the intent to hit you with a baseball back....under the new law he is toast.


John Doe was attacked by being called a liar, he retaliated; after that the assailant fled, flushed the evidence, framed someone else and is now a fugitive from justice.


For some reason Al Pacino raving at the end of Scent of a Woman comes to mind.