On a chilly February morning in Mesa, Arizona, members of The Attorneys On Retainer Association (also known as “AOR,” “AOR Association,” or “AOA”), and legal and self-defense professionals from around the country came together to talk about de-escalation (specifically, what happens psychologically when you are trying to de-escalate a bar fight), litigation that could have a major impact on our 2nd Amendment rights for generations to come, and everything in between.
It was the equivalent of a Super Bowl for those interested in self-defense education.
While it wasn’t quite like a rally (far from it), it’s clear that legal and self-defense professionals are struggling with the best way to educate Americans about self-defense. After all, it’s estimated that there are 1.67 million defensive gun uses that occur each year (according to a 2021 study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice), so there’s a lot of weight riding on the education side of the equation.
Over the course of the packed one and a half day agenda, it was clear that those in attendance wanted to learn as much as possible about the legal side of self-defense, as well as real-world advice for avoiding dangerous situations and exercising restraint if things do get out of hand. Many emphasized that it’s important to recognize that exercising your right to defend yourself, even if justified, can have a lasting impact on your life.
The Legal Landscape
In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own firearms separate from any connection to active duty in a militia. Two years later, in McDonald v. Chicago, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment is incorporated against state and local governments. More recently, in 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Bruen that gun regulations must be consistent with historical tradition. As a result of Bruen, dozens of lawsuits have been filed around the country challenging gun laws.
The legal battles over these 27 words, concerning a “well-regulated Militia” and “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms”, have been waged since the country’s founding.
It took a half-century to get there. When the Second Amendment Foundation started in 1974, said Gottlieb, there was virtually no case law supporting the view that the Second Amendment protected an individual’s right to own firearms. Historically, courts had interpreted the Second Amendment as only protecting a collective right to own firearms in connection with service in a state militia. Gottlieb described his organization’s strategy to change that. First, they asked law professors to publish law review articles supporting an individual right to own firearms interpretation of the Second Amendment. Next, they brought strategic litigation to build up case law brick by brick.
Not everyone in the room was a lawyer, so Gottlieb had to translate a bit.
When Self-Defense Meets the Courtroom
Ring doorbells, the home security devices on thousands of American porches, automatically delete their recordings after a period of time. Witnesses’ recollections can fade or be influenced by news reports. Defense teams that wait for the police to turn over evidence have squandered precious opportunities.
That was just one takeaway from a panel discussion that included attorney Marc J. Victor and a number of expert witnesses who dispelled popular myths about evidence and testimony perpetuated by legal shows on television.
“Video does not speak for itself,” said Dr. John Black, a use-of-force and forensic video expert. People think of video from a cell phone as the ultimate truth teller, Black explained. In reality, video can distort an event because of frame rate, camera angles, lens distortion and other factors. And because video is two-dimensional, events may appear to take place more rapidly or slowly than in real time or distances may be misrepresented. A punch that appears to come out of nowhere, for example, may have been a response to a threat outside the camera’s field of view.
The panel agreed that the earlier and more thoroughly an attorney investigates an incident, the stronger his or her chances for success, particularly in self-defense cases.
Active Shooter Response
Another veteran with law enforcement and military experience, Ed Monk has spent nearly two decades studying mass shootings. Perhaps the most thought provoking (and scary) session was his as he walked participants through situations many would prefer to not even try to imagine.
In the first minute of an active shooter incident a victim may be killed or wounded every 3 to 5 seconds. Police response time, even in the best of situations, can be anywhere from 4 to 12 minutes. This means that armed citizens who are in the area when the shooting starts may be the only ones close enough to have an opportunity to do anything.
However, Monk said it’s not as simple as just shooting back. He said any law enforcement responder who steps into that situation must be prepared to deliver what he called a “100 percent hit.” In many public settings, he said, there are plenty of people milling around inside a building and the walls won’t protect anyone. He said any missed shots or rounds that go through an offender could very well strike an innocent bystander. It’s the responsibility of the individual firing to account for all rounds fired, he said.
The Power of Not Fighting
Former police officer and crisis intervention specialist, John Riley, shared some conflict de-escalation strategies that might come in handy for all of us.
Only 7% of communication is through words, Riley reminded us. The rest is through body language and tone of voice. And when a person is angry, their brain is scanning for threats, as a roll of the eyes or aggressive body language could signal “I’m a threat to you.”
So what can we do to defuse a situation? Riley recommends the “ACE” framework: Appearance, Communication and Engagement.
Give an angry person space to work through their thoughts. Avoid saying “calm down”, since Riley noted that this almost always has the opposite effect.
Maintain a “reactionary gap”, which means standing just outside of arm’s reach from another person in order to buy yourself more time to think.
And if possible, walk away. “Ninety-nine percent of those viral videos showing escalated conflicts could have been avoided if one person had simply left,” Riley said.
Building the Infrastructure of Defense
There’s a gap in current insurance policies for self-defense. For example, say there was a school custodian with a concealed carry weapon permit. There’s two masked guys in a school with guns. And he defends people with his gun, he’s acting within his right of self-defense. However, he’s in violation of carrying in a school zone (which most states outlaw). He could get in trouble for violating that law, and self-defense insurance wouldn’t cover him.
The new “Hero Pro Bono Clause” would provide him legal defense (pro bono) should he run into legal issues stemming from his heroic actions.
They’re also planning a mobile app, and to bring their training conferences to many areas of the country to keep up with their growing membership. The organization’s leadership also touched on AOR business at the conference, announcing new services for members including the Hero Pro Bono Clause, mentioned above, and civil defense.
Final Thoughts
Self-defense is hard. As participants in The AOR Association Conference in 2026 made their way out into the February afternoon, notebooks in tow, they weren’t necessarily primed for a confrontation, but they were, however, primed with information. Legal information about their rights and responsibilities as a defender, training information about what to do if a violent confrontation is unavoidable, and information on de-escalation in situations where avoiding a fight altogether is an option.
Despite having different areas of expertise, conference presenters focused on similar ideas: Knowledge is important, but good decision making is even more so; with the right to self-defense comes great responsibility; and, ideally, self-defense training equips you with the skills and knowledge to never have to employ them.
Self-defense training and education aren’t about preparing you to get into a fight; they’re about giving you as much information as possible so you can understand if getting into one is your only option, or if turning tail and running is the braver, wiser move.
Learn more at: attorneysonretainer.us and attorneysforfreedom.com
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