This blog is based on an article originally published in Ammoland, May 19, 2025 by Dean Weingarten.
On May 14, 2025, Governor J. Kevin Stitt signed Oklahoma HB-2818 into law. Known as the Defensive Display law, it specifies allowed actions in self-defense while armed. HB-2818 passed the House (73-16) on March 25, 2025, and the Senate (39-7) on May 8, 2025. The law took effect immediately.
For purposes of this subsection, “defensive display of a firearm” includes, but is not limited to:
- verbally informing another person that the person possesses or has available a firearm or any other deadly weapon,
- exposing or displaying a firearm or any other deadly weapon in a manner that a reasonable person would understand was meant to protect the person against the use or attempted use by another of unlawful physical or deadly force, or
- placing the hand of the person on a firearm or any other deadly weapon while the firearm is contained in a pocket, purse, holster, sling scabbard, case or other means of containment or transport.
Several other states have a similar law. Texas has a defensive display law, Penal Section 9.04, which was last amended in 1993. Arizona passed a defensive display bill in 2009. The Florida defensive display, HB89, was signed into law in 2014.
Defensive display involves informing a potential opponent that one is armed, either verbally or by showing a weapon, when reasonably fearing harm. Pointing a firearm at a potential adversary is typically reserved for situations where deadly force may be justified.
In some states, laws make it risky to reveal that a person is armed, commonly known as “brandishing” a weapon. For example, in Arizona, before the 2009 defensive display law, showing a firearm could be charged as aggravated assault, a felony. This law was changed due to prosecutorial abuse of the previous statute.
READ MORE: Brandishing a Weapon – Legal, Social and Personal Implications
In most cases, displaying or referencing a firearm stops the aggressor’s hostile action about 90-95% of the time. Quantifying this is challenging, but it seems reasonable.
Research has found that aggressors often halt their actions when they know they are facing an armed person aware of their intentions. Criminals have reported that they fear armed citizens more than police.
Professors James D. Wright and Peter Rossi surveyed 2,000 felons incarcerated in state prisons across the United States. Wright and Rossi reported that 34% of the felons said they personally had been “scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim”; 69% said that they knew at least one other criminal who had also; 34% said that when thinking about committing a crime they either “often” or “regularly” worried that they “[m]ight get shot at by the victim”; and 57% agreed with the statement, “Most criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police.” (James D. Wright & Peter H. Rossi, Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms [1986]. See Guns and Public Health: Epidemic of Violence or Pandemic of Propaganda? by Don B. Kates, et. al. Originally published as 61 Tenn. L. Rev. 513-596 [1994]).
Banning effective defensive use of firearms is dangerous for both suspects and victims, leaving much discretion to prosecutors in states with ambiguous laws.
READ MORE: The Laws of Brandishing, Shooting to Wound, and Warning Shots
