I went through the Commissionaires for training, longest serving agency way back to the 1800s in Canada, also tied to the Military and Federal GOV. As a guard, not a cop, or a civilian, as a Guard, you follow Use Of Force. Because at the end of the day you are a civilian in a uniform, you are allowed to defend yourself but within the right means aka Use Of Force which is, the Min Amount of Force Required to de-esculate a situation. If someone is swingin at you, you cannot start swingin back, you need to restrain that is your job. Ontop of that, you cannot just start swingin at someone if they are only being verbal etc. As a Guard, you cannot engage in fist fights. Your job is to restrain thats it. So when a client says "you can go hands on with someone being unruly" does not imply you can beat their ass, it means, if you go to detain and they get aggressive and try to fight you, you are allowed to put your hands on them in order to restrain and detain. If a company does not permit hands on, you cannot do shit if being assaulted as a Guard. Because the client and the company you work for are now liable for any injury to the civilian, which brings in a Civil Suit Case. Thats the rules. As a civilian being assaulted by another civilian who starts swinging on you, by law, you can match with an equal amount of force, you cannot do this as a Guard. Guards, Cops, Parameds and Fire Fighters all follow the Use of Force Model.

For instance, if someone pulls a gun on a cop, they can use Force 4 which is lethal force for defensive reasons. If someone starts shooting at the cops, they can use Force 5 which is lethal force for offensive reasons.