LIVE WEBINAR – THE LEGAL USE OF FIREARMS FOR SELF-DEFENSE IN VIRGINIA

$150.00

9 students

This course is out of stock

Next Presentation: Saturday, October 3, 2020 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

This course teaches Virginia’s legal limits on the use of deadly force in self-defense situations, with a particular focus on the use of firearms. It will give you a working knowledge of the legal boundaries between a justifiable use of firearms in self-defense and an incident that will expose you to criminal prosecution and civil damages liability. It will also give you a practical set of guidelines and steps you can take to maximize your chances of winning (and financially surviving) the legal battle that inevitably follows a self-defense shooting. If you live or work in Virginia and rely on firearms for self-defense, this course is a must.

Part 1: Important Principles You Need to Know and Apply to Stay Legal in a Deadly Force Confrontation

In Part I of the course, we explain in everyday terms Virginia’s boundaries between the lawful and unlawful defensive use of firearms. Our presentation is illustrated with useful, practical examples involving real-life situations. We cover street confrontations, home invasions and the Castle Doctrine, Virginia’s stand your ground principle, and defending others. We will also cover (i) troublesome new case law concerning the unambiguously life-threatening overt act which is legally required to justify a deadly force response, (ii) Virginia’s legal rules relating to threat duration and proportionality of response, and (iii) a new development in Virginia’s law regarding brandishing. We also address whether you can still rely on prevention of an atrocious felony in Virginia to justify the use of deadly force. We will provide you with a real-world understanding of the rules you need to know to maximize your chances of staying legal in responding to a deadly force attack.

Part 2: Vital Information Needed to Deal With the Legal System in the Immediate Aftermath of a Self-Defense Incident

In Part II, we describe the legal battle that follows on the heels of almost every self-defense use of firearms. We explain each step in the post-confrontation legal process and give you a real understanding of how the system works. We teach you how to deal with the critical time just after a self-defense incident, including:

911 calls
Pre-arrest interaction with the police
When and how to assert your Fifth Amendment rights
What follows after an arrest

What you do in these circumstances will have a huge effect on how the legal system will treat you. The course provides you with practical steps you should take and tools you will need to (i) protect your legal rights and (ii) help you (and your counsel) extricate you from the legal system with the least amount of difficulty.

Part II also discloses the real magnitude of your exposure in defending against criminal and civil suits, and provides detailed information about the various kinds of affordable, cost-effective insurance coverage that are available to help you financially survive a protracted legal battle. This information is not only up-to-date, but readily understandable and reliable.

The course is presented in a seven-hour session that includes short restroom breaks and a 20-minute break for lunch. It has been taught for five years in northern Virginia and has consistently received enthusiastic reviews from the Virginia shooting community for both its content and its straight forward, engaging presentation style. It has become the gold standard for those who carry or rely on firearms for home security and self-defense.

Course

Instructor

Stephen L. Sulzer

Mr. Sulzer has been practicing law in Washington, D.C., for more than 39 years, and has been a partner at some of the city’s most prominent national law firms, including Steptoe & Johnson and, most recently, California-based Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. In fall 2013, Mr. Sulzer broke away from Big Law to found his own law firm, and after much planning and preparation, expanded his practice to encompass firearms-related matters. He is particularly focused on criminal and civil defense work for clients who have had to use firearms in self-defense. He has also expanded into matters involving federal and state firearms regulation, as well as Second Amendment-based litigation. Mr. Sulzer has an AV Preeminent Peer and Judicial Rating from Martindale Hubbell, the highest rating given by Martindale-Hubbell for legal skills and professional ethics. Mr. Sulzer is pleased to have been selected as a referral attorney for both the United States Concealed Carry Association and the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network. Mr. Sulzer has developed a two-part training course entitled “The Legal Use of Firearms for Self-Defense in Virginia – When the Defensive Use of Firearms Is Permissible and How to Win the Legal Battle That Will Follow.” For the past five years, Mr. Sulzer has taught the course regularly in northern Virginia at the Nation’s Gun Show in Chantilly and Fredericksburg (through Historic Arms Corp.’s Firearms Training Store), at Silver Eagle Group in Ashburn; at Fairfax Rod & Gun Club in Manassas; and at The Gun Dude in Falls Church. The course has received enthusiastic reviews from the northern Virginia shooting community and has become the gold standard for those who carry concealed or rely on firearms for home security and self-defense. Mr. Sulzer is now offering the course live online through the National Firearms Law Institute. He is also developing an online version of the course covering the law of self-defense in several mid-atlantic and southeastern states and will ultimately cover the law in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Mr. Sulzer has also expanded NFLI’s course offerings with a new course on Virginia’s 2020 gun control legislation and a short course on insurance coverage and other programs available to protect your finances if you are involved in a self-defense incident. Mr. Sulzer has been active in the shooting sports dating back to the mid-1990s, when he began shooting service rifles in competition against the Marine Corps Rifle Teams and the Army Marksmanship Unit. He began his competitive shooting career with the M1A and transitioned to the AR-15 in 2000. He competed in three position “across the course” iron sight matches at distances of 200, 300, and 600 yards, and has also competed at 1,000 yards. When Mr. Sulzer retired from competition in 2005, he was shooting Master level scores. He still shoots handguns (particularly M-1911s) avidly, has held a Virginia Concealed Carry Permit since the late 1990s, and is an NRA-certified pistol instructor.

5.00 average based on 30 ratings

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Reviews

Robert

Washington, DC Course Attendee

Very thorough but digestible and well presented in an easy-to-understand way. Love the background and personal expertise.
Amber

Washington, DC Course Attendee

Tons of info. Thanks for also sending the PowerPoint. Gave me a lot of info to know in self-defense. Mr. Sulzer is extremely knowledgeable.
Anon

Washington, DC Course Attendee

Very good/interesting. Well worth the investment!
Richard

Virginia Course Attendee

Provided me with the info I came to learn. I really did not know what I did not know. Provided critical facts to move forward.
Marti

Virginia Course Attendee

Very realistic and professional. Steve was a very high energy, riveting speaker who made class participation comfortable and interactive.
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Comments

James McDonald August 20, 2020 Reply

The content of this course is CRITICAL to any person who carries a gun. Law Enforcement people should ALSO attend so that they can see what the Public sees as their rights to self defense and the situations that arise on the street. Uniform officers have little or no “Civilian”experience with shooting situations while “Out of uniform”. And when they do, they are “Acknowledged as Knowing the law”. (Which may or may not be accurate).

The main thing is to realize that “The Law is NOT your friend” with respect to Police, District Attorneys, Commonwealth Attorneys, and Judges. When the shooting stops, everyone is a Monday Morning Quarterback. And you need to have a game plan to handle the pundits, press, police and so called public interests.
- Stephen L. Sulzer August 21, 2020 Reply
  
  Jim, your comments are right on target. Steve
James Vesce August 20, 2020 Reply

If we are all required to be aware of this information, in order to exercise our 2nd Amendment rights, why should there be a $125 barrier that all citizens must pass in order for the information to be available. Seems we all have a right to this information, doesn’t it?
- Stephen L. Sulzer August 21, 2020 Reply
  
  James, until you can convince the Commonwealth government to prepare and provide you and all other citizens with a useful and comprehensible description of the law of self-defense at taxpayer expense (good luck with that), you are stuck paying a private source, for example, us here at NFLI, to assemble and distribute that otherwise inaccessible information. In the information vacuum that currently exists, we make no apologies for offering this important and necessary service at a very reasonable price. If your point is that it is of dubious constitutionality for the Commonwealth’s courts to create such a complex matrix of legal principles, and for you to have to pay a private source to bring you up to speed on them, you are onto something. Unfortunately, complex societies with complex problems (like ours) breed complex laws and legal systems. And for a very long time, the citizenry has put up with the legal information deficit that creates without making sufficient noise about it to motivate meaningful change to the system. It may not be a good way to govern, but it is the one you are currently subject to. So, at bottom, until the system gets reformed/overhauled, if you want to hear the music, you’re gonna have to pay the band. Steve
James Busch September 28, 2020 Reply

The government has no specific individual duty to protect anyone from anyone or anything. Yet too many erroneously remind us that only government and it’s agents, are the only ones that can and should protect us.

Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748 (2005), provides the perfect example to dispel that claim, despite the dozens, if not hundreds of other lower court decisions that have held the same legal opinion for years before the aforementioned 2005 Supreme court opinion.

Jim