hello fellow Oregon residents! a couple questions

[Cotillion]

I've been a resident now for a little less than a year, prior to that I lived in las Vegas for 3 years and before that I was born and raised in Seattle. It's been quite a few years since I've owned a handgun, I had my wallet stolen which contained the rent of my roommates so I had to sell off my 2 pistols :(

Anyhow my question is how the laws of self defense are in Oregon as far as handguns are concerned. I know in Washington the use of a firearm even if legal and in self defense would land you in jail, in las Vegas however if used strictly as self defense and it wasn't obvious you were trying to blow someone's head off then you would most likely walk away without becoming a felon. I've been trying to piece together this information with no luck on the internet and I don't want to rely on hearsay from friends so any help here would be much appreciated.

An example would be, my wife and I are at the grocery store and as we are loading up our car 3 men start harassing us, talking aggressive and threatening. One of them starts forward to obviously assault me and I draw and simply fire a shot into his leg to back them off. I then call the police. Mind you this is just an example. Would I be risking assault with a deadly, or would this be a case of self defense? It's silly to me that each state provides its own laws like this, it should definitely be federal.

[Ed Hurtley]

ORS 161.205-255 is the appropriate section of law.

Except as provided in ORS 161.215 and 161.219, a person is justified in using physical force upon another person for self-defense or to defend a third person from what the person reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force, and the person may use a degree of force which the person reasonably believes to be necessary for the purpose.

(215 and 219 basically state that this doesn't apply if you were the aggressor or are yourself committing a crime.)

Of course, just because you are justified doesn't mean you won't end up being cuffed and taken away. The way I've heard it told is: "If you pull your firearm, expect to be taken away in handcuffs - no matter how "right" you are." Don't argue with the police, it's their job to keep the peace, not determine guilt. If they see one person with a bullet wound, and another person with a gun, the one with the gun is getting hauled in - period. Don't explain yourself to the officer. Until your trial, you will have your guns and CHL taken away. But would you rather be temporarily inconvenienced by the justice system for the next few weeks/months, or assaulted and possibly severely injured or dead?

[Cotillion]

Thank you for the response and I agree 100%. I've already had the talk with my wife that if god forbid I'm ever put into that position say nothing, contact the lawyer and expect me to go to jail until its sorted out. I'm actually very pleased so far with Oregon gun laws and the ability to protect myself. In Washington I knew of several people caught in self defense situations that ended up serving time for assault with a deadly.