defensive gun use dgu

This past Wednesday, a North Carolina woman named Chandra Nierman was being choked and beaten by her boyfriend, Steven Kelley, in plain view of her three children. Kelley threatened to slit the woman’s throat and kill everyone in the house.

That was all the woman’s kids (one son, aged 12, and two daughters aged 15 and 16) needed to hear. The boy went and got his mother’s gun. The 15-year-old took the gun from him, took aim at Kelley and fired twice, killing him. One of the bullets fragmented and grazed her sister’s leg, but fortunately, that injury was minor: the girl was hospitalized, treated, and released the next day. A fate much better than what might have happened.

Upon investigation, deputies found Nierman covered in bruises from the incident. They also learned that Kelley was a convicted felon who had carried his own, illegally possessed gun in the house and had used it to terrorize the family on previous occasions.

Upon seeing the evidence, the DA made the decision we’d all make: good riddance, Mr. Kelley. No charges will be filed against the woman or her children.

The best defense against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, or in this case, a good teenage girl with one.

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56 COMMENTS

    • I’l shocked, SHOCKED! that the gun was not locked up and the ammo stored in a separate underground bunker with a time lock, retina scanner, and approval-release hot line to the authorities. (our betters).

      • Well with a SMART gun the situation would have been even safer as the fragment would not have nicked the sister. I mean the gun grabbers would approve of the entire family being slaughtered.
        Remember put your guns in a safe to make sure other family members cannot get to them.

    • I’m glad it worked out ok for the kids. It sounds like he was a bad and dangerous dude.

      I have to take issue with the statement that: appreciate

      “The best defense against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun… ”

      Sometimes the best defense against guys like this is to not shag them.

      1. Get married before you have kids
      2. Stay married to the children’s father
      3. Don’t shag thugs or violent felons

      • While we don’t know the full situation, I tend to agree with you at least on principal.

        The degradation of marriage in America has nothing to do with guns, but it has had incredible socioeconomic impact on the people of this country.

        I hope that family can move past this experience into a better future.

        • The sexual liberated hate the words personal responsibility. They would prefer to have fun. And talk other people out of being responsible. I say be judgmental. Its interesting how so many people who are sexually liberated are also very harsh in their comments on inner-city violence.

      • I was married to my children’s father for 23 years until he succumbed to cancer, which we all suffered through for 2 horrible years. But hey…..we could just go with your opinion instead.

        • You surely know that you don’t represent the typical single mom. I’m profoundly sorry for your loss. I cannot begin to understand the suffering you have gone through.

          My sister lost her husband of 17 years (and father of 2 young children) unexpectedly in a car accident a couple years ago. It had been and continues to be terribly painful for her and the kids.

          In your case apparently only principal 3 applies. Stay away from violent felons. Don’t compound your sorrow by dating an abusive man.

        • Sometimes you find out what you are made of; what you have made of yourself. During the US civil war, they called it “seeing the elephant.”

          What the anti-gun folks deliberately decline to get; insist on pretending they don’t get, is that nobody wants to have to defend someone with a gun. It’s horrible.

          And they deliberately decline to get; insist on pretending they don’t get, that it is the best of being human to be equal to the worst that happens. To spend yourself in a worthy cause is a terrible privilege. Both. To choose to step up, and be marked by what you did is horrible. To step up knowing you will be market however it comes out, but that’s the right thing and you step up anyway, is the best of being human.

          So, you hang with the guy who is dying, because it’s the right thing. You know it’s gonna mark you, and you do it anyway. And when that’s the last, least bad thing to do about some guy who’s beating your mom, you get the gun, and use it. You know it’s gonna mark you, and you do it anyway.

          I have to believe that standing with your husband in the stupid cancer is part of what taught your kids how to be that way, this time, with this other disease.

          I am sorry these things happened to you. Nobody wishes for things like these. It is my privilege to know of people doing their best, deep in the suck, including kids, not quite fully formed, who could step up. All that happened has marked them. The form of the marking, well, that came from what they were able to do, and that came from how they were raised.

          Thank you for your stories. I needed that today.

        • Thanks for the comment. Sorry for what you endured.

          However, for me and rather than subject my family to years of anguish if I become terminally ill…I have and will execute a rather different plan.

      • Perhaps a widow who hasn’t been fully made aware of their current partner’s past, is reason enough not to presume you know the situation, let alone judge it.

  2. Gotta be a thick backstory. Boyfriend, three teenage kids, abuse, felony, etc. Funny that this situation rises to high TTAG news when the majority here would brush off the woman and her kids as welfare sucks and wouldn’t give her the time of day at Walmart.

    • Finance,

      “Gotta be a thick backstory.”

      A lot of men have no interest in developing a relationship with a mother of three children which greatly diminishes the available dating pool. That fact may very well have driven the mom to continue with the relationship.

      “… the majority here would brush off the woman and her kids as welfare sucks and wouldn’t give her the time of day at Walmart.”

      First of all, you have no evidence to support your claim. More importantly, even “welfare sucks” have an unalienable right to life and to keep and bear arms. Or are you advocating the position that only “refined” people have an unalienable right to life and to keep and bear arms???

      • “More importantly, even “welfare sucks” have an unalienable right to life and to keep and bear arms.”

        That. Right there.

        • That’s my point. The kid has TTAG Hero status now but prior to pulling the trigger she was a nobody in a tough spot.

          One should not need to off a bad guy to be a worthwhile person.

        • Finance,

          Well, if the mom and daughter are “welfare sucks”, perhaps this was their first step toward self-reliance and rejecting government “benefits”. We can dream, right?

        • Finance;

          What is your point? I guess I don’t get it. Most all of us would tell you many valuable tidbits about how to not end up in this situation, are you saying we are keeping it a secret? Is there something you have in mind that TTAG in particular should have been doing to help someone we’ve never heard of? Do you believe there is somehow magic? Bad choices lead to unpleasant lives. What is new? Why would I give her the time of day at Wal-Mart? Why would I *BE* at Wal-Mart?

        • I have no evidence anyone involved was a “welfare suck.” There are 330 million people in the country, and 7 billion in the world. I individually care about a few thousand that I have interacted with in my life. There’s too many people to know their stories, names, challenges, and triumphs. I can’t know and care about the few 10’s of thousands in my city, much less a stranger in another state. The people in this story are just statistics to me, but their statistics that say people use firearms defensively, minors can access guns responsibly, and minors can use guns defensively. None of that would be published or reported on by mainstream media.

    • Wrong. Crazed, abusive and criminal relationships exist at all levels of society.

      Further, it seems to me your anger is directed at gun owners here judging by your other posts. So we wouldn’t consider her a hero until she did something heroic? No Shit Sherlock. How else are we going to hear of her? Why would anyone go around giving hero status to random people in the anticipation that they might one day do something heroic? Who are you to sit there on your high horse and judge us about who we “give hero status to”?

      • They gave Obama a Nobel Peace prize for no good reason. He then proceeded to destabilize Libya, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, for no real reason, giving birth to ISIS. So…

  3. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of why responsible children MUST be able to gain immediate access to firearms.

    So called “safe storage” laws which do not allow responsible children to have immediate access to a firearm for self-defense are heinous and obscene — and could very well be the primary reason that family members are seriously injured or killed in a home invasion.

    • If this had happened in Seattle, Edmonds, or Everett, the new “safe storage” laws would have let that now-dead abusive shitstain kill a woman and three children.

      But hey, at least it wouldn’t have been gun violence.

      • Truthfully , how many people are going to lock up all their guns all the time because the Gov says they must. Not me ever. I have them mostly locked up, but some are strategically placed and always will be. For the record, I don’t live in any of the cities mentioned, but nearby across the water.

        • I hope no one will.

          But if enough people do, stuff like this is guaranteed to happen, and people will die because government told them they weren’t allowed to make their own choices in their own homes.

          I’d also hope the government wouldn’t make stupid rules like that, but…

        • All of my guns are locked in a high quality safe backed by an alarm system that calls the suburban cops (about 5 minutes away, average) except for the one on my hip and the one in my pocket (and a few in quick access safes around the house).

          No kids around here but plenty of burglars.

  4. But…but…but… She wasn’t 21 yet!!! And her mom’s gun wasn’t in a safe!!!! And women can’t use a gun to protect themselves, it’ll just be taken and used against them!!!!! They should have just gotten a restraining order!!!!

    Am I doing it right?

    • I think in ‘certain’ slave states this would have gone down as follows:

      Mother arrested and charged with:

      Safe-storage laws
      Allowing a ‘under X-age’ access to a firearm

      Some DA spouting mouth-sewage about ‘zero tolerance’ and some black-robed Richard-sucker making an example…for the good of the children.

  6. Fake news, fake news, fake news. Study after study has shown that defensive gun uses are never successful, besides which, DGUs do not happen; such stories are propaganda from the NRA. If this story were true, we would be reading about the death of the ex-wife and all the children because having a gun only means it will be taken away and used to kill you.

    If a non-male doesn’t have a gun, that person might get beat up, but would be alive to testify against the attacker. Women, and girls (and the uncertain), are genetically incapable of defending themselves against violence; just the facts of life. Women who fear being attacked by a boyfriend, ex-husband, or random street thug should move away, or contract for private security. If they can’t afford private security, they should just give up whatever the attacker wants. Chances are better that surrendering will not result if further injury.

    But best of all is to disarm all men, permanently, starting with the so-called law-abiding gun owners. If all those gun owners are disarmed, only the inner-city neighborhoods will see gun violence, and that is much less a problem because it is confined to a known, but very small segment of the population. If women avoid those dangerous places, they will be safe from harm. The problem is crazed men with guns in parts of the city that are not known for crime.

    I read it on the internet.

  8. Had this happened in England, the daughter would be spending the rest of her life in prison.

    Except that almost no one has firearms in England which means the boyfriend would have killed the mom and the children — which is somehow supposed to be a far better outcome than having a firearm in the home and saving the lives of the innocent family.

    • Meanwhile, thugs are still shooting away in various parts of Merry Old England. And let’s not even think about the astronomical levels of assault with edged weapons. Or the Islamic acid attacks.

      But hey, at least there are no guns in people’s homes. Hooray for that, I guess.

  10. A little more CL needed in the shallow end of the gene pool, please. Let’s help all abusers of people, power, status and position to reach room temperature as soon as possible. Foxtrot Kilo Alpha. 30

  12. On states that have this bull shit “guns must be locked up law”, Does anything in those laws say that children of certain ages, can’t have the keys or combination to the safes?
    In this case, great job young miss.

    Many years ago a similar incident took place with a lady I had dated. She had 5 kids, the two oldest were 14 and 16 year old boys. The lady also had a live in boyfriend who enjoyed banging around the 14 year old. One day the live in got particularly violent with the 14 year old. The 16 year old kept trying to pull him off his brother, who was screaming at this point.
    The 16 year old then got a baseball bat and slammed him one across the scull, killing him. End of story.

    • Gunr,

      If your child knows the combination to a gun safe, removes a firearm, and uses the firearm for ill-intent, then by definition you have failed any possible understanding of “safe storage”.

      I am not defending safe storage laws: rather I am explaining how there is no way that parents can have a firearm available for a child AND satisfy the requirements of safe storage laws — all the while with zero legal risk.

      Thus:
      (1) You truly secure your firearms and risk your children’s lives since they will be unable to defend themselves when they are home alone.
      — or —
      (2) You keep your firearms immediately accessible to your children for self-defense when they are home alone and risk your life (prison time) since they will be able to misuse firearms for nefarious purposes.

      In other words safe storage laws create a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario.

  13. I can only wish the family, especially the daughter that fired the shot, the speediest recovery and hope they can put this experience behind them. That bastard got what he deserved, but taking a life, even that of a scumbag, is stressful. I hope she finds her peace, and commend her for defending her family under duress.

  14. In an era of phony female heroines whose greatest claim to fame is being victimized, this 15 yo is an actual heroine. She refused to be a victim, which is why she will never be praised by Democrats and rarely by the MSM.

  16. That young girl and the other kids should definitely get a medal from the Sheriff for bravery under fire.

    I applaud her actions, and thank God the gun was not in a “safe space”. Additionally, that girl is NOT a snowflake, which for a 15 year old girl in today’s world is quite exceptional!!

    MAYBE ALL IS NOT LOST YET…………

    • My daughter has the sweetest spirit of any person I know. She has faith and rests easily knowing she did what she was forced to do. She was definitely my hero on that night!

      • You must have exceptional qualities yourself to raise such fine children under difficult circumstances. I hope everything works out well for you and the kids, you all deserve it…… 🙂

  17. What a great tag team those two kids made! I’m sure Mom has got a lot to be thankful and proud of with her kids!

  19. I know Chandra-we’re from the same town in Indiana. She was not a welfare-suck as someone so eloquently put it. She was married to her husband for 20 plus years before he died of cancer last year. She started a new life with this guy. She moved south with her three youngest kids to start over. Obviously her choice was bad but I’m praying for her and her family. And thank God Lee taught the kids how to shoot!

  20. Chandra- sincerest best wishes to you and your kids in a good fresh start in life going forwards. There are plenty of people who can maintain an entirely convincing act of decency until they have you in their clutches. Your daughter is a hero, and you yourself are brave to wade in here, in this discussion, when people are throwing about uninformed assumptions. We need more people with your and your daughter’s kind of realtime, real world courage, not just keyboard warriors.

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