The Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network: A Legal Defense Program for Armed Citizens Who Defend Themselves from Criminal Attack

The Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network, LLC is a group of armed citizens who have networked together to provide legal assistance for innocent citizens who used deadly force to defend themselves.  Some rather impressive people are associated with the Network, including Massad Ayoob, John Farnam, Tom Givens, and Dennis Tueller.

The organization is relatively young, but already has a network of trainers and attorneys to assist its members.  Dues are $85 for an individual with a discount available for your spouse.  The dues get you training videos up-front, but also expert review of your case and consultation with your attorney should you ever become involved in a self-defense shooting.

The Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network press release:

ARMED CITIZENS’ GROUP TACKLES POST-SHOOTING CHALLENGES

Sign on to an Internet gun bulletin board, read a gun magazine or talk to other shooters at the range, and the topic of post-shooting legal troubles frequently comes up. With most states granting the right to concealed carry, more citizens have the option of using guns in defense than ever before. While this is a positive trend, the needs of armed citizens to survive the legal aftermath of a shooting is also on the increase. While these citizens are well-trained and well-equipped, many as yet have not developed a good strategy for surviving with the legal aftermath.

Recognizing that critical deficiency in the survival plans of many armed citizens, the newly formed Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, LLC is ready to take on this many-faceted problem. First, the Network provides education materials to its members, so they understand what to expect after using a gun in self-defense, as well as affiliating with attorneys and legal experts to whom members may turn for their legal defense. In addition, the Network is building up a non-profit foundation with the single-minded mission of building a fund with which to defend Network members who face unjust criminal charges after a self-defense incident.

The Network is the creation of long-time firearms instructor Marty Hayes, who in recent years earned his post-graduate juris doctor degree. Instead of settling down to practice law, Hayes decided to combine his experience in firearms and self-defense with his law education, forming the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, LLC, aiming to limit the legal jeopardy of armed men and women who may face substantial losses when they take on the legal system after defending themselves physically.

“Imagine, a prosecutor who has charged a citizen after that person defended him or herself with a gun,” Hayes illustrates. “Suddenly, the prosecutor learns that they will face a concerted, well-funded defense not unlike what happens when the ACLU steps in to fight injustice, or when the Teamsters join a law suit to defend a union member.”

Of course, the organization’s goal is that members avoid contact with the legal system altogether, accomplishing this through a three-disc educational DVD set that all members receive, plus training at the Network’s yearly conference, and a monthly electronic journal published on the Network’s website. Still, in some jurisdictions, no matter how clear-cut the circumstances, no matter how unavoidable the act of self- defense appears, citizens must defend their self-defense choices to the legal system. Instead of worrying about selling the family home to pay for good legal representation, these members can apply to the Network for a grant of financial assistance.

Hayes estimates that the growth of the Network into a grass-roots organization flexing that kind of muscle can be accomplished in three to five years. “Right now, we are just getting started and all of our efforts are going to put together all the details that make a membership organization run,” he commented. Among those efforts are affiliating with shooting schools and self-defense instructors across the nation, not only to spread the word about the Network, but in the cases of instructors choosing to do so, to arrange discounts on training through Network affiliated instructors.

The shooting community is well-served by a variety of groups who lobby for legislative change. Now is the time for a new grass-roots effort, expressed by the Network’s mission statement: “Believing that armed self-defense is a legal and moral right, the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, LLC exists to aid, educate and support lawfully-armed Americans who are forced to defend against criminal attack.”

For more information, visit the Network’s website at www.armedcitizensnetwork.org, or give them a phone call at 360-978-5200.