SPECIAL NOTE:
The reader will only be able to understand the purpose and meaning of this annotation and its relationship to the Natural Social Contract (NSC), if s/he has first read the Introduction section of the NSC and its explanatory and elucidating annotation.
The NSC sharply distinguishes between Protection and Defense. It is clear that the definition of Protection does not include any kind of preemptive Action (potentially Violational Action prior to the occurrence of Responsible Harm to oneself - recall that Harm to oneself includes Harm to anything that one Values). However, in regard to Defense, there is a major problem of how to distinguish when some Action is a Defendable Threat from when the Action is not a Defendable Threat. This distinction is particularly important because a Freeman is Entitled to Act against a Defendable Threat Intentionally in a manner which is known beforehand to potentially be the Effective Cause of an Event of Harm to the Freeman who is the Effective Cause of the Defendable Threat (see Stipulation A.5 of the NSC). This means that once validated as Defense by a Trial, such an Action is retroactively not a Violation. Whereas if the Action is not validated by a Trial as a Defendable Threat then it is an Intentional Violation which not only Requires Restitution, but is a Revocable Breach of the NSC. Since the allegedly threatened Freeman is the one who may receive UnRestitutable Harm if s/he does not Act, this distinction has to be left to hir subjective Decision during the Duration of the Process that s/he perceives to be a Defendable Threat, except for objective circumstances under which it would not be possible for hir to be Responsibly Harmed (see the exact exception wording in Stipulation C.7 and Stipulation E.5 of the NSC). Others, of course, will Socially Preference hir according to their own judgment of whether or not hir Action and the Harm caused by it was necessary or unnecessary to prevent Harm to hirself. Therefore, it should be clear that Defensive Actions will not be taken lightly because of all the risks of negative repercussions which they incur.
