National gun legislation is also mentioned. Using a resource person from a public policy institute or law enforcement organization is a valuable contribution to this lesson. Through a role-play, students review basic negotiation skills that attorneys and clients need for effective cooperation, including giving and receiving negative feedback. A representative from the public defender's office or a local defense attorney contributes to this lesson. Students analyze several situations and debate whether each situations is or is not self-defense.
Students discuss what it takes for a rule to be effective.
They then write their own rules for the use of self-defense. The common law rules of self-defense are reviewed. Both rules are compared, with emphasis on the similarities between the actual self defense rules and the rules that the students themselves have written. Students give advice to the key participants in each scenario about how to resolve the situation without resorting to the use of a weapon in self-defense. A police officer assists with this lesson.