The question of the legality of using the civilian weapons of self-defense in our country is rising to the highest level more and more often. Often, citizens, which are gun owners, are not able to properly assess a given situation, to give a clear, complete response to a question of the legality of their actions in cases of necessity of using weapons.
As the example, in this article we will try to briefly explain the concept of “THE EXTREME NECESSITY” and the validity of its application.
In accordance with Part 1 of Article 39 of the RF Criminal Code " causing harm to the protected interests in case of emergency, i.e. for elimination of danger, directly menacing to the person and rights of the individual or other interests, legally protected by society or the state, if this danger could not be eliminated with other means and thus there has not been admitted the excess of the extreme necessity, is not a crime, ".
On the basis of this article of the Criminal code of the Russian Federation, it is legalized the right of citizens of the Russian Federation to actions for preventing a great harm by doing less, and thus it is consolidated the constitutional right of citizens to implement the protection of their rights and freedoms by all legal means, not prohibited by the law (Article 45 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation).
Thus, a person, caught in a state of emergency, chooses the lesser of two evils, and by the deliberate violation of one of the interests makes the other, more important in its significance. That is why the acts, done in a state of the extreme necessity, are legitimate and morally justified.
For example, an employee of the currency exchange point, if there is the real threat of deprivation of his life, gives a large sum of money to armed robbers; a fireman destroys buildings, standing close to the source of the fire to prevent it from spreading to the residential area; law enforcement officers, to save persons captured as hostages, fulfill the requirements of criminals on the transfer of money, weapons, drugs, and the provision of vehicles.