The case for carrying a handgun is made in headlines around the country every single day. Circumstances are as varied as the different locales; the incident could occur when we’re at work just as easily as when we’re sitting at a traffic light. However, the most common location for defending yourself against a lethal threat is your own living room . . .

This week’s defensive gun use rundown includes several accounts of homeowners defending their homes and families. Sometimes the shots hit their mark, like this Edmond, Oklahoma case of an estranged husband gunned down after entering the home of his soon-to-be-ex-wife. Other times, popping off a few rounds tells the intruder you mean business.

When Mom and Dad head out for a camping trip and leave their teenage son in charge, it’s usually a benign responsibility. Their biggest worries, I’d hazard a guess, are drinking and parties, not life and death. In Patterson, California, though, a 19-year-old shot and killed an intruder while keeping an eye on the family home. Police have charged another man who allegedly provided information to the now room-temperature burglar. A very well-prepared Indianapolis homeowner successfully defended himself when a burglary suspect burst into his home. The criminal was hoofing it from Indy police and clearly picked the wrong house for cover.

But not all home DGUs end with a mess to clean up. A woman in Gaffney, South Carolina discovered it only took one shot to scare off a home invader. When an unknown man kicked in her front door, she grabbed her baby and hid in the bedroom. A single shot sent the guy running.

Whether you live in Ohio, Texas or even Arizona, there are incidents every week where local folk defended themselves in life-threatening situations. They were prepared, and not just while at home. While on the job, a New Jersey pharmacist shot at a robber and chased him from his store.

There’s really no way to know when you’ll need your gun. That’s why concealed carry is so often compared to insurance. When a night out at the corner bar can turn into a potential mass shooting, it’s best to be self-insured. To the hilt.

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21 COMMENTS

    • Mikey# I refuse to give you a hit on your website, but if you would like to have your points refuted, I as well as a number of other TTAGers would probably love to prove you wrong. So, post your points about the pharmacy DGU here.

    • Gee, Mikey, maybe he heard about the other pharmacists in the area. From the article:

      …a gunman killed a pharmacist in Trenton, N.J., before stealing $10,000 in pills. Two months later on New York’s Long Island, a robber walked into a neighborhood drugstore and gunned down the pharmacist, a teenage store clerk and two customers before leaving with a backpack full of pills containing hydrocodone.

    • Mike,
      Are you familiar with OODA loop? Action beats reaction. Interesting website which shows the time for college kids unfamiliar with firearms to draw and shoot, as well as times for trained LEOs to fire with their gun drawn and in a ready position in response to a buzzer going off.

      http://www.forcescience.org

      If you wait for the other guy to make a move for their gun, they will get off at least two shots at you before you can react. Without being there to see exactly what happened, who was where, how they were moving etc. it is impossible to judge whether it was a “legit” shoot or not. But if the pharmacist was aware of the recent killings of pharmacists at work, it certainly indicated a greater likelihood that the perp was a very real threat. Occupational hazard for the perp, victims aren’t mind readers and can’t tell if this is the guy who kills when he robs or not.

        • Fleeing or repositioning? Getting better cover or concealment? He can still shoot over his shoulder as he runs. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what the actual presentation/distances were. I won’t condemn or defend him. I’m simply pointing out that we do not have sufficient information from a news article so I won’t let my personal bias color my assessment.

          • Of course you don’t have enough info to judge. You’d hate to jump to the conclusion that when someone shoots at a fleeing man’s back it’s improper. You’d insist on considering the 1 in a 1,000 chance of the fleeing bad guy shooting over his shoulder or that he’s strategically retreating for a better vantage point – highly, extremely unlikely possibilities.

            You’re loyal to your kind, that much I’ll give you.

      • Mike, in my state it is illegal to shoot after the threat stops. It can be a judgement call as to when a person is no longer a threat. How much chance am I supposed to give someone trying to kill me? If it’s just 1,000 to 1 with the stakes being my life, you’re advocating I just let the dice roll? I’m not the one who created the situation. Again, I don’t know the particulars of the incident you link. Consider a couple of videos:
        http://www.forcescience.org/crossbodyunder.html
        http://www.forcescience.org/crossbodyover.html
        http://www.forcescience.org/extendedback.html

        Fleeing and no longer a threat are not synonyms. I’m not a mind reader, if he tosses his weapon away I’ll blow him a kiss as he disappears. If he still has his weapon, it’s a judgement call given lighting, cover, distance, backstop, etc. etc. etc.

    • Why don’t you just come out and say it. You value criminal lives over gun owner’s lives. Sounds like you’d rather him have been killed by the perp after he found cover and shot back than be chased out by lead. Really sad. How’s Italy, BTW? I hear they have SYG laws now.

    • So Mike, you have a problem with one of the THIRTEEN links posted in the thread not being a “clean” shoot. I don’t know about that one, I wasn’t there, so what about the other 12?

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