Anyone who thinks they can mess with a woman tending little ones is in for a rude awakening. Especially if the woman in question is armed, like Charlotte mom Samantha Bunce. dailymail.co.uk reports that Sam “was at home breast-feeding her four-month-old son Bentley when the intruders arrived on Tuesday morning. The men knocked on the front door, rang the doorbell and kicked in the door of her home east Charlotte, North Carolina.” Ms. Bunce took action . . .

The mother-of-two quickly took her son to the bedroom and placed him in the crib before grabbing her gun.

When the men opened fire at her in the stairwell, she then fired back from the bedroom door.

Her husband Paul, a medical technician, told WSOCTV: ‘I think it was a shock to the intruders just as much as it was to her.’

Bunce was shot several times and is recovering in a hospital. The baby wasn’t injured.

It was her military training that allowed her to remain calm during the gunfight, he added.

Wait. What? I hardly think Ms. Bunce calmly shot the intruders as she calmly took two slugs. And while I respect anyone who serves this country in the military, if she told stock still in the stairwell (a.k.a., the”funnel of death”) as she shot (as suggested in the animation above), someone needs better training. Lest we forget, the bad guys landed shots. Ms. Bunce did not.

Still, result. The baby’s fine, Ms. Bunce is in stable condition and one of the bad guys has turned himself in. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America note: your attempts to exploit mothers’ protective instincts for gun control are doomed. More and more Moms are reading stories like this one, realizing that it’s their responsibility to protect their family. With a gun.

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64 COMMENTS

    • We already paid a crap ton of money to get her training, she was in the military, if that didnt work then what will. I will not throw more money at her.

      • Run-of-the-mill military training doesn’t prepare anyone for defensive response in the home.

        Unless you’re combat arms (as mentioned in the video, she’s a medic) and/or are prepping for deployment you don’t get Close Quarters Combat Drills training on a routine basis, which is what she would have needed in the described scenario.

        “Army Training” doesn’t make soldiers invincible or omnipotent. It Just makes them soldiers.

        God bless this woman and all our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines on this Veterans Day.

        • Even combat arms guys don’t necessarily get good defensive pistol training. I was a tanker, so I was issued an M9 as my personal weapon. Pistol marksmanship wasn’t given any emphasis in Basic, and the qualification standard for pistol is pretty simple to pass. When I started shooting in local pistol matches, I regularly got my behind handed to me by guys with no military or LE background – they just shot a lot.

  3. That;s a lot of shoot’in for not landing any slugs on the intruder. Her husband needs to take here to the range.

    • Where you there? Did I miss the time you were bottle feeding an infant and paused for a moment to drop a couple of head shots on two surprise home invaders?

  4. Funny that the article makes no mention of what weapon she used to defend herself. Handgun? Shotgun? Rifle? Evil black scary assault puppy killer AR-15? The intentional omission and her background as a National Guard combat medic leads to believe it was likely an AR.

    • I would bet handgun. It is WAY harder to miss with a rifle. Even just point shooting.

      praying for a quick recovery! And speedy justice.

  5. More training. She had good instinct to fight but everybody needs more training and to work out scenarios so they are better prepared. I will say this to all women, you have a responsibility to learn how to shoot, get a gun and if possible a carry permit. Refuse to be a victim, with all the criminals out of jail we are ALL a target, especially women, elderly and disabled people. The police are not there to protect you and always take too long to get there, not their fault. In places that dictate you are not allowed to protect yourself I will say get out of there ASAP as I did.

  7. I wonder if she was still in the mindset of the SandBox Rules Of Engagement that our soldiers must follow. She is a combat medic in the NG,.
    Those ROE require that soldiers not fire unless fired upon.
    At least she did have the chance to fire back otherwise the story would be a “should have been a DGUD.” They only stopped shooting because she fired at them.
    I hope she heals well. When she recovers, take some defensive pistol classes and more range time.

    • “Those ROE require that soldiers not fire unless fired upon.”
      That’s not usually the case. There were some areas, under some commands, mostly in Iraq, that required soldiers to actually be fired upon, but most only required an imminent threat. Even then, that was not the ROE in most of Afghanistan and seemed to creep in only during the later years of OIF.
      As a medic, during 2 tours in Afghanistan, my rules were pretty simple, kill anyone that is a threat. I justifiably killed people who had not shot at me or my team, who were running away from my team, and sometimes who were not even armed. This was well within our established ROE.

  10. Very common outcome without some real, quality, close quarters training… I’m afraid the majority of people ( present company included ) don’t train for that type of situation. range time isnt a very good substitute

    • You shoot to remove the threat. In this case, mission accomplished in that I’m pretty sure the threat(s) removed themselves just as quickly as they could when she returned fire, even if she did not score any points.

      Sorry that she was hit in the meantime – I wish her a speedy recovery.

  11. $100 door reinforcement kit would’ve bought her much more time to secure the little one and take up a defensive position.

    • All you need is a lockable storm door with glass. Would-be home invaders have to bust out the storm door which is difficult and dangerous if your break the glass. Furthermore, it is LOUD. Then they still have to break down the inside door. I’ll bet that storm door adds at least 5 seconds to their time to breach … all the time I need to get into position.

    • I’m not sure of percentages, but I believe (and my personal experience enforces my belief) that most criminals know the victim(s). If she could ID who was shooting at her because it was her druggy ex brother in law, then I could see why he would turn himself in. (This is just one possible scenario.)

      • “I’m not sure of percentages, but I believe (and my personal experience enforces my belief) that most criminals know the victim(s).”

        Wrong.

        That’s only true for certain types of crime, and even then, sometimes only subsets within type.

        Situational murders are almost always committed by an acquaintance of the victim, for example.

        Burglaries rarely are. Ditto home invasions. And car jackings. And forcible rape (ie, non-‘date’ rape). And armed robberies. And strong-arm robbery/mugging. Etc. And, etc.

        Not sure what your “experience” is, but the conclusion you are drawing is incorrect as a general statement and in terms of applying it to this case. There’s no evidence whatsoever that has been reported that she knew her attackers.

        • I was speaking from the perspective of my own years involved in felony/violent crime investigations.

          Finding those stats collated that way in a single source would probably be difficult. The data is there in the raw police reports, but one would have to work a bit to catalog it in this manner.

          That said, I have seen stats published on the subject, but don’t recall where or over what geographical region or time period, etc. It was years ago.

          From a quick look online, here’s an older study that states 75% of robbery victims were strangers to their attackers.

          http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rv.pdf

          I’m sure there are similar reports and more recent ones; I doubt that has changed, and this is consistent with my own observations and what I have been taught in classes, etc.

    • It’s one of those ‘hot button” cases. Breastfeeding mom shot while defending her cub. Street thugs know it’s just a matter of time before they get dimed and caught.

      He turned himself in so he wouldn’t get shot when the swat team came for him. And 10 to 1 he’s cut a deal to turn in the others involved so he gets a lighter sentence. I worked in a prison for a time. The snitching is constant.

  13. It occurs to me that single mothers are just like this lady, except the husband NEVER comes home. Thus making THEM provider and protector, and more likely to want a gun. And golly, look at that; single motherhood (read: potential victimhood) has exploded over the decades.

    Feminism backfires.

    • Feminism does exactly what it’s supposed to do- it’s a hate movement with the goal of dividing up women in feminists and “internalized misogynists” and men into cucks and sh!tlords, then make everyone a victim by disarming them and branding all XY individuals as “rapists” because oatmeal.

  15. I wasn’t there (thank God). For all I know, I’d have just need my pants and curled up balling in the fetal position.

    But probably not. With all due respect to a member of our military, I have to ask, “really?” Ma’am, your home was invaded and you and your baby were both in danger. You “calmly” stood in the staircase, got shot twice yourself, and never hit the bad guys?

    Both intruders should have been drt on your living room floor.

    • I’d like to point out to everyone here that NOWHERE in the article does it say she stood stock still at the top of the stairs. That was the animation, which is just someone’s interpretation of events.

      She shot back, lived, and saved her child. That’s a win for society in my book.

  17. Moms Demand Action ??? This is one mom who got a little more action than she needed, but held her own. Good on her. There’ll be nothing but silence from Shannon on this.

  19. Just a stray thought, if you lived in a free State which actually allowed you to possess firecrackers, would a string of them touched off and tossed down the “Funnel Of Death” staircase not confuse your attacker?

    Better to keep them out than drive them out. Hope she recovers quickly

    • Trying to light a string of firecrackers is too cumbersome, takes too long, and is unreliable. Racking a pump-action shotgun would be infinitely more effective and practical.

  20. It wasn’t as much of miss as it was surpression fire to keep heads down while kids could reinforce thier position.

  21. She wasn’t raped, she isn’t dead, her baby is safe, and she’s gonna recover. I think she did pretty damn good for herself, all told.

  24. Good for her. Glad her and the baby are OK. Like others mentioned, she needs a little training. My Fiancé is home alone a lot and I always leave her a weapon for HD. I always tell her to get cover or as a last resort, come concealment whenever possible. I try to teach my fiancé new things at least once a week. You’d be surprised what people can learn with just 5 minutes of teaching them something consistently.

    • Don’t mess with a mother who has a pair of 38s.

      All kidding aside, Good For Her, defending self and family.

  26. TTAG, it appears the woman’s name is ‘Semantha Bunce’, not Samantha…

    I thought I had it bad for having an unusual name growing up, I can’t imagine the crap she had to put up with…

  27. A mother of two, breastfeeding a four-month old? She was probably still in the post-partum fog of sleepless, physical/emotional/psychological exhaustion. I’m impressed she was able to respond as well as she did, and fended off multiple, armed, attacking (i.e. shooting) home invaders.

    She protected her son, and escaped alive. The human oxygen-waste who shot at her turned himself in.

    I can find no fault here. Well-done, ma’am!

    • Oh, good point Chip. And expanding on your point even further, when a mom nurses her child, that process releases chemicals/hormones that relaxes the mom — creating additional physical hurdles for the mom to overcome before operating at maximum physical and mental capability.

  29. I would just like to point out one thing. It seems to be a common misconception that the mother stood in the stairs while exchanging gunfire with the intruder. According to the linked article, the mother actually took her son to her bedroom, put him in his crib, grabbed her firearm, and then shot at the intruder from her bedroom doorway. It was the intruder who was in the stairwell.

    More reading of facts; less armchair quarterbacking of her defensive tactics, please.

    • …and taking that into account it’s entirely possible that her position (in a doorway at the top of a set of stairs) is why she was unable to get a good shot on her attackers. Furthermore, moving out of that position in order to get a better LOS may very well be the reason she took rounds. The BG’s had only one person shooting at them; she had two shooting at her.

      In the end nobody died and one of the two criminals is in custody (hopefully for a long extended visit). It may not be high yield but It’s still a win-win.

      This could not have happened if she had been denied the legal possession of a firearm.

  31. “Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have charged a man in the home invasion and shooting of a young mother inside her east Charlotte home.
    CMPD charged Reco Latur Dawkins Jr., 23, with attempted murder, felony breaking and entering and conspiracy to commit felony breaking and entering in the home invasion and shooting of 21-year-old Samantha Bunce last Tuesday. ”
    http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/mother-shot-home-invasion-fired-back-family-says/npGTN/
    Photo
    http://www.wbtv.com/story/30466441/man-turns-self-in-charged-with-shooting-breaking-and-entering-of-ne-charlotte-home

    • The guy had three B&Es last year alone, and began his career in prison when he was 17 years old. What’s he still doing walking around? WTF?

  32. MDA would say that she shouldn’t have had a gun – she should have cooperated and the criminals would take what they wanted and left. … ….
    .. …
    But in reality, they probably would have just raped and and discharged their STD and HIV infected payload within, and possibly in addition shot a couple in the dome so they wouldn’t have any witnesses. In my opinion, she made the right decision. They broke into her home armed – they clearly had intent to harm, and a person puts everything they have in the hands of criminals being unarmed and cooperative.

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