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Defensive Gun Use

Homeowner Shoots Man After Warning Shots Failed

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This time, in Alabama. A homeowner fired warning shots at two men trying to steal gasoline from his shed.

Sources say that two men broke into the homeowner’s shed out on Jackson County Road, Route 83 in Pisgah. The homeowner fired an undisclosed number of warning shots and ordered the two alleged robbers to get on the ground.

At some point during this time, one of the men decided to get up and run toward the homeowner with a knife. The homeowner shot the robber-turned-attacker in the knee.

The wounded attacker was flown to Chattanooga Hospital, leaving the other suspect to be charged with burglary, theft, and false identification.

Analysis:

There is a lot going on here that is wrong and should never be done by anyone who is serious about self-defense. But remember, in these stories all we can do is discuss the information as presented. We were not there and don’t have all the details. Still, we can learn from these.

We don’t know much about this story and I did look for another source for more information on this but was unable to find one. Details are thin but there is a lot we can learn from this situation.

First, in many states it is illegal to deploy deadly force, to include even showing someone your firearm as a deterrent, for theft of property. And, in many states, just showing the firearm IS considered to be deadly force.

The crime usually has to warrant the use of deadly force. Many times, things like preventing murder, rape, serious bodily harm, etc., are things that warrant the use of deadly force. The number of areas where you can deploy your weapon to preserve property are few.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, but more often than not in this anti-gun age, shooting someone for stealing gasoline will get you locked up. Period. Don’t do it.

Second, firing warning shots is never a good idea for a multitude of reasons, with the most obvious being, it doesn’t take a burglar out of the fight. In fact, as it happened here, it can do quite the opposite.

I believe that after the homeowner ordered the men to the ground, he must have turned away or was otherwise distracted long enough for the guy with the knife to feel confident enough to run at him. But again, I was not there.

However, we HAVE to assume that if this person (or an attacker in your own incident) is desperate enough to steal gasoline, that they’re willing and able to avoid getting caught at any cost–to include rushing a homeowner with a knife.

I can’t be positive, but I highly doubt the knife guy wanted to give the homeowner a hug. I’d bet money on the fact that he was trying to end the homeowner’s life, take his gun, and then go get some more gasoline with it.

Thankfully he didn’t have his own gun. I’m also thankful that his accomplice didn’t have a gun because things may have turned out differently.

If you need another reason why warning shots are bad, there are several. Here’s one, you have no clue where the bullets land. They can ricochet off the ground and hit an innocent, or travel really far if shot into the air, also hitting an innocent. Don’t do it.

Finally, he shot the bad guy in the leg. While I don’t know if it’s because he’s a bad shot or if he meant to, I’m leaning towards he meant to. After all, he did fire warning shots at the bad guys to begin with. This is compounded idiocy.

Thankfully it turned out well, so far. But we have to assume, again, that the bad guy doesn’t want to go to jail. While a shot to the knee sucks, if a dude is hopped up on methamphetamine, some other drug, or even his own adrenaline–he may not even feel it.

We also have no idea what shape the second bad guy was in. What was his frame of mind? Did he also have a knife? A gun? Was he willing to charge to stay out of jail?

And, if he did charge, guess what? The homeowner still has two bad guys to deal with because he was unwilling to defend himself properly from the get go. Frankly, he did a lot of things wrong even if he came out on top.

If you carry a gun for self-defense, you must be willing to use it properly once the time comes. This doesn’t mean you have to be willing to kill someone, just that you have to be willing to protect yourself appropriately.

If that person dies because he did something so stupid that you felt you had to protect yourself, then so be it.

Here is the source article for more information. Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

DGU: Don’t Trust Your Contractor

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This Defensive Gun Use story comes out of Michigan and took place about one month ago. I am just hearing about it and feel it is important to discuss. Why? Because a 63 year old man had to defend himself against a 24 year old who worked as his contractor.

In a true “you can’t trust anybody” type of story, a 63 year old man with a gun defended himself against someone he must have trusted enough to enter his home and do work as some sort of contractor during the daylight hours.

While it is unclear at this point what kind of work the contractor did for the older man, what is clear is that two shots were fired after the contractor forced his way into the home during what is described only as “early morning hours.”

It seems at this point as if the contractor canvassed the home and new that the 63 year old would be a weak, easy target. It seems at this point as if the suspect had seen something of value in the home and wanted to take it for himself.

This happened in the early morning and the 63 year old shot the suspect twice with his handgun shortly after he found the suspect had forced his way inside. The suspect was then taken to the Ann Arbor area hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and, for some reason, he was released.

Police are said to believe that the suspect chose this house because the men knew each other from the contracting work.

You can read more on this story, here.

Analysis:

There are things we don’t know here. We don’t know what the suspect wanted, but can assume that it was to either hurt the man or take his stuff. Being that people don’t generally break-in to houses to drop off cheesecake, I believe he acted appropriately when he responded with deadly force.

More importantly, we don’t know how many shots were fired, nor what kind/caliber of gun was used. We can therefore not make any assumptions on what we’d do differently, in this regard.

What we can say, however, is that we can never trust anyone. We can never assume that someone is our friend after just meeting him or her. And, we can never assume that people have our best interests at heart because most of the time, they do not.

We don’t know what type of contracting work he did, but we can assume that he may have had free roam of the house, which is obviously not the best case scenario.

It’s always best to see the worker in and stay with him/her until they leave when you show them back out.

What are your thoughts on this Michigan defensive gun use story? What would you have done differently? Let us know in the comments below.

New Thread: Defensive Gun Use News

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We’ve added a new category to the list called Defensive Gun Use. This is something that not enough people talk about. Because nobody really talks about it, those anti-gunners who oppose our right to keep and bear arms don’t believe it happens. Not only do people defend themselves with their guns, it happens more than most people realize.

The important thing to remember is that you don’t need to pull the trigger in order for it to count as a DGU. And, sadly, those are usually the only stories being reported.

In order to help combat misinformation, we’ll be posting regular DGU stories on this website. It is our hope and desire that you’ll share these stories with your friends and family, so they’re can arm themselves with knowledge, as well.

Not all of these stories will have a good outcome, but they will all meet the following criteria to be listed on our website:

  • A gun must be used to defend life (whether the trigger is pulled or not)
  • The aggressive attacker should be stopped (though this won’t always be the case)
  • The defender should, by our best guess, be acting in self-defense (of course we won’t always know this)

In so doing, it is our hope to spread the word about the positives of gun ownership to those who would rather take our rights away. I’ve spoken to many on the other side of the aisle who don’t believe guns save lives.

I think it’s time to prove them wrong.

The other goal here is to learn from example what works and what doesn’t. Tactics that may work well vs those that do not. And, at the end of each story I recommend that we all reflect on how we’d react if presented with a similar situation. Stay tuned, stories will start to roll in shortly.