The Gun Counter

I watched a movie today where a bouncer threw, literally, a guy out into the street after he was arguing with his girlfriend.

Every now and then, one of these guys will get cute with a lawyer or off-duty cop and get sued. Almost always, the bouncers lose. Strangely enough, I've never seen anyone press actual criminal assault and battery charges against one. Maybe it happens and just isn't newsworthy.

What I'm wondering about is how you might go about appropriately defending yourself against one of these mooks.

Let's say he orders you out of the club. Besides your compliance, he continues to push you, lay hands on you, etc. Maybe he even cuffs you around a bit. There might even be several, all wanting to show what a badass they are. What should you do? How should you cover your actions, afterwards?

In your answers, please cover appropriate responses for both free states and more, um..."progressive" areas.

For instance, in Kentucky, my CCW allows me to legally carry guns, knives, and other items such as blackjacks and batons.

Fire Away!

Isn't a sliding scale of force rule applicable here? A bouncer or security guard presumably is acting with the authority of the property owner on matters involving trespassing. If you are complying with an order to get off the property and not bothering/endangering others on the way out, neither the owner nor his representative can lay hands on you.

Grabbing you by the arm and impeding your free movement can be construed as unlawful arrest. Pushing and hitting can fall under assault. None of these are lethal in nature, so you cannot response with a weapon capable of dealing lethal force and that takes knives, firearms, and blunt trauma weapons (saps, batons, whole frozen salmon). The best thing here would be to evade the hits as best as possible and escape the area.

Leave quickly. If you were manhandled, and are sober, call the police. Next morning, call your lawyer.

I've dated a couple 'exotic dancers' and gotten to know the fellas that work as bouncers at a few joints. Your first mistake was drawing the attention of the bouncer.

A bouncer never asks you to leave until he's asked the rest of the bounce staff to watch his back.

You can't win a fight with the bouncers. Go outside, and call the cops.

Never personally had a problem w. a bouncer, but I avoid certain clubs - usually because the bouncers were known as bad people, and purported X dealers.

Had several former teammates who were bouncers - IF they had to approach a guy, there was always a video camera following them - if for some reason they used force, they made sure the other guy attacked them. (That frat boys attacked strongmen who dabbled w. Krav Maga/MMA stuff should explain how drunk the problems were.)

Terror of terrors, either call the cops, or a lawyer in the AM.

As a former bouncer myself (Tell the ladies at 'Legends' that 'Mash' says 'hi'), we always tried to handle things with the least amount of disruption as possible. I think you do have a case if they unnecessarily laid hands on you. There is no special training or license to be a bouncer in Texas. You are acting at the discretion of the owner. If you tell someone to leave and they do not, then they are trespassing. If you tell someone to leave and they do, then the bouncer has no more legal options.

Also a former bouncer. We were told to keep hands off unless the drunken fool (I NEVER threw anyone out of the club that wasn't sh*+faced) put his hands on us first. And many times they did. Then we were supposed to act "with restraint". That was the hard part.

One particular time, I was breaking up a fight on the dance floor when a frat brother (fratty-cakes were the WORST offenders) of one of the fight participants punched me in the back of the head. I turned around and broke his nose like an over-ripe tomato. The bar got sued by the pussy fratty-cake. Never knew what the outcome was...

If it weren't for all the women I met, the job wouldn't have been worth the hassle.

From the movie Road House:

Dalton: All you have to do is follow three simple rules. One, never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Two, take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it's absolutely necessary. And three, be nice.

Doc, you scurvy dog you, welcome back! I guess the MD is just so you can put back together what you took apart in the first place!

Hey Doc!!