The legal dimensions of armed self-defense are genuinely important for law-abiding gun owners to understand, and The Law of Self Defense: The Indispensable Guide to the Armed Citizen by Andrew Branca covers that territory competently. If you carry a firearm for personal protection, the core content of this book — the five elements of a successful self-defense claim, the legal principles that govern use-of-force decisions, the importance of understanding your state’s specific laws — is information you need.

That said, this is not the most compelling book I’ve read on the subject. Branca is a lawyer and his writing reflects that: thorough, systematic, and somewhat dry. More substantively, the author’s public persona and commentary on related cases has, at times, seemed more interested in clever legal analysis than in the moral and ethical dimensions of lethal force — dimensions that Christians must take seriously. For believers, the right to self-defense is grounded in the sanctity of human life and the duty to protect theinnocent, not merely in legal technicality.

So: read this book if you carry. Understand the legal framework. But pair it with a more theologically grounded treatment of the ethics of self-defense — there are good resources in the Reformed and natural law traditions on this question — and don’t mistake legal permission for moral guidance.

Admittedly this is not the best review. It’s a good book of facts that are have value. However the author does not take much time to make you want to keep reading the content. The forward is from another expert that sets the tone for this being a book being more focused on its own expertise — rather than the reader learning this important content.

📚 Purchase: Available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

Book Details: Publisher: Law of Self Defense LLC | April 26, 2016 | 276 pages