I was thinking Dale was using a lot of words to say what could be said very simply-- "I won't use force against someone unless it's necessary to get them to stop using force against me"-- but it's not quite that simple. If someone broke into your house, for example, there's a broad range of behavior you could employ in response to that, from "I'd say hi and offer him a cup of tea" to "I'd shoot the motherfucker in the head without warning." The guy has initiated force on your property, but how much force are you willing to exert back?
Me = female. Stronger than an average female, but not remotely strong enough to imagine my chances would be good trying to physically subdue your average male, which would be harder than simply trying to beat the crap out of him. And yet I still wouldn't want to think that if a man broke into the house when I was alone at night, my reaction would be to lock myself in the bathroom, call 911, and hope for the best. Announcing that someone is being held at gunpoint may mean that they back off and run away, but not necessarily, and it puts you in more danger than if you had just hauled off and shot them. So, do you haul off and shoot him? If so, where? Ideally in the front hallway, as it has tile and is easier to clean. Actually, you're told to aim for the chest because that's the best in terms of chance to hit as well as providing stopping power. But "stopping power" also means "killing power," which is what provokes anti-gun people to ask whether the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for forced entry.
I wouldn't feel good about killing someone who had broken into my house. I would feel slightly better about it if I had threatened him with a gun first and that didn't cause him to leave. I would feel better still if not only did it not cause him to leave, but he had managed to attack me and I killed him to stop the attack. But I still wouldn't feel good, and it's disturbing to think that my virtue rises in direct proportion to the amount of danger I'm in. And I wouldn't feel good about hiding in the bathroom either.