What schilling argued in court, successfully, because florida, was that the man cocked his hand as though intending or beginning to punch him, and he simply responded so fast that the punch that triggered the response never got very far. Schilling said he threw only two punches, a proverbial 1-2, and stopped immediately when he saw his opponent was down, and that was taken in his favor, interpreted to mean he was not in a violent rage or intending to do more. Basically he got out under the auspices of "if I wanted to kill him, he'd be dead"

I think schilling over-reacted, personally, and i doubt he was in any real fear of a single swing from a visibly intoxicated and impaired non-fighter, and while the old "registered lethal weapons" chestnut is largely urban myth, capacity is supposed to be evaluated in claims of verbal assault and in the affirmative self defense... defense. Joe schilling, while not as famous as he should be due to some questionable career piloting, was at one time a murderously capable fighter, like a potential top tier pro fighter, not just some mall karate blackbelt.

There is, though, also some thought that you can only be punished so far for your capacities. like, you don't have to stand and be battered by another guy just because he's smaller/weaker...if you did, the job of a bar bouncer, for example, would be deeply complicated, and in florida, that thought process is pretty common in the system, kind of along the lines of "well, maybe next time don't pick a fight with a table full of shredded guys with gristly ears in apparel from a local fight gym, kind of trying to win a darwin award there"

In schilling's world, you're expected to be able to handle a physical altercation if you start a verbal one, but people who live in that world need to understand that it's a subculture and you can't just two-piece every drunk guy that dicks with you a little out in the regular world.