Jeff W. writes:

“Two men have been arrested following a Monday night hit-and-run involving multiple parked cars and mailboxes in the Hayden Hill subdivision, according to the Goose Creek Police Department.” This happened in my neighborhood last night. Three hit and run suspects on the loose, with the police searching for them. They were spotted two houses down from mine just before midnight. I live in a very nice neighborhood, but criminals can travel. My small community has a Facebook page so everyone was using it to communicate. As soon as I learned three men were on the loose hiding around my house from the police I immediately tooled up . . .

For the first time ever, I locked and loaded my AR15 for home defense. I usually only have pistols ready because I have three young children. They are too weak to pull the slide back to put a round in the chamber, so I feel it is the safest for my family. The moment I realized I might be facing three men, though, I had to adapt.

This was a prime example where an AR-15 was more than justified. One guy was 250 lbs and another was 200lbs. I wanted to have the biggest advantage I could get. After about three hours, all three men were finally caught, but it was a restless night. I felt a lot more comfortable knowing I had plenty of firepower, but I still was alert because I didn’t want to be surprised.

I live in the south, so most people are packing heat, but it was kind of funny that a few neighbors on the page are not gun owners. But for a while, they were wishing they were.

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41 COMMENTS

  3. Drunken meatheads tend to sober up remarkably fast when someone points a rifle or shotgun at their chests and asks them to behave nicely. Yes, an AR or M1A is more than appropriate here.

    A-Rod, I prefer the battle rifle, but a Mossberg 930 Tactical is an acceptable substitute. Then again I’m rather big and sturdy myself and handle shotgun recoil just fine. That’s not the case with everyone, though. The AR is considered a better choice for many folks as often mentioned here, and I concur in that assessment.

    • Agreed, I’m a big fellow too so 12 gauge is no trouble either. Rifle may be the queen of the battlefield but the shotgun is the king of the castle.

    • Gosh, I suppose I should either agree or disagree. In that scenario, I’d probably take my Mosseberg 930 with 00 in the gun and slugs in the buttstock pouch. Which is good, because otherwise I could be in the garage, standing in front of a few open gun cabinets, transfixed in indecision.

      The AR in 6.8 SPC or 300 BLK in my opinion, would also be ideal in that scenario. Its got more weight and power than a 5.56, and less risk of over penetration than a .308. Still, it would be nice to choose on your own and not have “double barrel” et. al make (or eliminate) that choice for you.

      • Shot gun for me too. Large ugly individual here armed with a large ugly shotgun. Any foreseeable situation in my home environment can be handled by a shotgun backed by a pistol.

      • Hmmm. See, I consider double-ought to be overkill, especially if you have close neighbors. In distance, I mean.

        I generally have the compensated EAA WITNESS closest at hand, followed by the (at LAST it can be revealed) Bushmaster M-17S bullpup. The venerable 870 is stashed in a remote part of the house, case for some reason I gotta retreat.

        But that’s just me:

  4. I live in a hot climate also. What kind of holster do you use for summer time carry? I applaude your actions in protecting your family. I am relegated to a pistol, as my left arm is paralyzed, from having been run down by a raghead cab driver. As a result I carry and depend upon a Colt Commander in .38 Super. Before I get the “..it should only start with a 4 nonsense…” educate yourselves as to what this cartridge is capable of. It was the cartridge of choice by John Dillinger, and the FBI. It was the first handgun cartridge to go through an engine block. It IS what the military should have gone to, instead of the 9mm. But this is all off track.
    Jeff W. Did EXACTLY what he should have. He made the proper preperations to protect his family. Now is the perfect time to make converts, and get a plan in place in the event something should happen.

    • My (concealed) recommendation? Any variant of the leather/kydex 2-clip hybrid holsters (see: Galco King Tuk). It seems like it’d be awful bulky, but the entire setup carries the gun better and I can completely Houdini a faux S&W M&P compact under just a T-shirt.
      (If you’re asking why it’s faux, it’s because I took an old service-size one and chopped the grip to take compact magazines. There’s not really a worse pistol you could do that to, but the results were surprisingly not bad.)

      Open carry? Sh*t, you do what you want.

    • A summer-time carry holster round-up would be a good subject for TTAG to tackle…

      I like my Nate Squared tuckable which has suede on the body side and neoprene on the firearm side. TTAG review of one of their holsters is here.

    • In the summer I just carry a very small .380 in my pocket. I prefer to wear cargo shorts and put it in the cargo pocket so I don’t have to carry my phone in my hand.

    • I apologize on behalf of all my fellow ragheads…

      …I’m sorry that the accident didn’t knock your racism out of your head along with your brains.

      • So, a man left with an arm paralyzed for life got just what he deserved, eh? Your empathy is heartwarming.

        • Could it be considered justifiable racism at that point?

          He is left without the use of his arm because of a person that he describes as a “raghead”. That may not even be with racist intent on his part.

          He may be directing the term to that particular person who fits the stereotypical description of what many people would know “raghead” to refer to.

          If you were black and hit by a car driven by a white man you would probably call him a “honky”. Even though that term is attached to racism, that does not necessarily mean you are racist.

          When a person adversely affects your life in the long term you are not going to speak respectfully about them. You will use derogatory words in describing them.

          Jumbie, how about you go a day without using your left arm.

      • I’m the racist? The koran exhorts the “true believer” to LIE CHEAT and STEAL from all non-followers of i-slame. SLAVERY is still a major enterprise in the land of allah. Your people are so civil to one another thaT they can’t wait to start a blood fued, amongst themselves. You better grab your buttocks while you can. Once we start to play Cowboys and ragheads, for real, your going to wonder what happened to your backside, as it is being kicked out of our country. The hnic and all the those that love him won’t be in power much longer. The true American People will only take so much, and I believe we have just about had as much as we are willing to take. Just remember jumbie wumbie there is more than one to skin a sand man.

        • lol, that was HILARIOUS!

          Let’s go over what just happened:

          “Jumbie” calls out a racist comment when he sees it in the post by mp504. For doing so, he’s then met with all these excuses defending the racist comment — just because the person who made it was victimized by someone of that particular race/religion that he was insulting — because that somehow justifies denigrating an entire GROUP of people for the action of one person. But THEN the original poster who made the racist comment, mp504, answers back with an entire freaking racist, islamophobic, non-sensical, ignorant SOLILOQUY, which proves that Jumbie, the guy who said he was racist in the first place based on that one comment, was, in fact, 100% right.

          Haha, I’m loving it. I think internet message board commenters should be required to complete some form of “libtard” anti-racism, anti-sexism training before they post anything.

          And mp504, you exemplify the sense of justice (roughly equivalent to that of a 12 year old) that exemplifies the gun lobby. The ol’ eye for an eye, you give ’em what they deserve logic. Because you basically said “well THEY’RE the ones who are REALLY racist, so of COURSE I can be just a “little” bit racist in return…. Come on, really???

  5. Jeff, consider yourself fortunate in that you reside in an area that allows you to defend yourself and those you care for. Unfortunately, many of your compatriots live in states, counties or towns where doing the same would make them greater criminals than those they would likely need defense from. Those folks would only have the option of calling for help, and hoping it arrives in time for them to not become a statistic.

  6. My choice of home defense weapon depends on how much advance warning I have.

    In a bandits-on-the-loose scenario like this one or in Boston, my Colt MP6920MP-B is the go-to gun. If the disturbance is a major, non-random sound elsewhere in the house, like a window breaking or door forced open, then out comes my KRISS Vector SDP pistol in .45 ACP from the night stand drawer.

    If it’s someone right outside our bedroom door or, worse, coming through it, then we go to our concealed carry weapons reliably resting atop our nightstands within instant reach: Glock 26 9mm on my side, Ruger LC9 9mm on hers.

  7. Glad it all worked out ok.

    However, wish you’d think this over : ” I usually only have pistols ready because I have three young children. They are too weak to pull the slide back to put a round in the chamber, so I feel it is the safest for my family. ”

    Being a father & working daily around children I’ve found they are usually more capable & stronger than you think. Plus, they grow dang fast and what’s an acceptable method today may be outdated before you realize it. You ought to consider getting used to a access / safe storage method you can use at any age. Just food for thought.

    • I know what you mean, but when I say small children, I mean small. My oldest can’t even begin to rack the slide on a small pistol, yet alone the one that is not in the safe. Also, it is not where they can get to it. You are right though, I am going to have to come up with a new plan in the near future. There is no way I am going to let my children put themselves or anyone else in harms way.

  8. CONGRATS!,being able to defend your family with a firearm makes a person feel all good inside,like an AMERICAN should feel.

  10. Good solution! Personally, when I “tool up”, like during Hurricane Sandy where we lost power for a little more than 2 weeks, I had the AR locked and loaded as well as both 12G pumps and I home carried my .45.

    While not the circumstance you describe, we did have lots of people around us with little food. For those who had a generator, they couldn’t get gas after 3 or 4 days and there were lots of car gas tanks getting punctured for the “juice” as Mel Gibson would say. We also had generators being stolen and after a lot of people bugged out because they had no heat, houses were getting broken into by opportunistic criminal types.

    All in all, it was a great test of my readiness plan which revealed more than a couple of holes. Naturally I addressed those holes once the power came back on!

    I bet there were a lot of Watertown households that wished they had a gun or two when the two Muslim brothers were running around!

    • I’m glad tat Watertown was largely disarmed when the two [religion deleted] brothers were running around.

      Not because it’s good to be disarmed, but because at least one had to live to face questioning.

      With ten thousand angry Bostonians posseing about, that likely wouldn’t have happened.

    • Wasn’t the .357 Magnum designed for vehicle penetration? I knew a cop who stopped an oncoming car bent on running him down; he fired his .357 into the grille until the engine seized.

      For my home, my 870 & .45 automatic. Nothin’ fancy.

      • Same here. I could have an AR15 with 30 rounds of 5.56 or my Mossberg 590A1 with 9 rounds of 00 buck. Each of those rounds is packed with 9 pellets of .30something calibre badness. Regardless of preference, bad guys beware.

      • Same here. I could have an AR-15 with 30 rounds of 5.56 or my Mossberg 590-A1 with 9 rounds of 00 buck. Each of those rounds is packed with 9 pellets of .30 something calibre badness. Regardless of preference, bad guys beware.

  12. A couple days back, I held a Benelli M4 Law Enforcement 12 guage semi-auto shotgun. I think I’m in love though the $1,600 price is too much.

    • Aharon, if I’m not totally misreading some of your previous comments, you are into prepping. If that’s so you need a shotgun. I’m not saying you need a 1600 buck Benneli, tho it would be money well spent, but a shotgun is essential kit for a person that may have to scrounge and forage for food.

  13. Holy cow…

    I’m not sure what better demonstrates your amazingly poor judgment: the fact that you think your perception of children’s hand/arm strength is a viable part of your firearms safety strategy or the fact that a drunk driver walking away from a wreck in your neighborhood requires you to actually pick up a rifle inside your (presumably) locked house.

    I’d hate to think what would’ve happened if a cop had knocked on your door to ask if you had seen anything.

    • First of all, these drunks didn’t just walk away from any normal accident. They were driving all around the neighborhood at a high rate of speed hitting many mailboxes and cars that were parked in the street. They hit some cars so hard they were going across lawns and hitting houses. The article didn’t do what was going on any justice. No one knew what they were doing and what they were going to do to get away from the police.

      Second, my firearms safety strategy goes beyond my child’s arm strength. My kids can’t get to any of my guns, period. None. The pistols with no rounds in the chamber is the last line of defense though. What was printed above was really just a quick note.

      Third, if a cop knocked on my door everything would have been fine. If someone busts my door open, they would not have been fine.

      I am glad to see you are so concerned.

  14. My home defense options are inspired by the old west: make sure your long gun eats the same stuff as your side arm. I home carry my 1911 and keep a HiPoint .45 carbine at an easy to access location. I know there are a lot of snobs out there who would turn their noses up at the mere mention of HiPoint but I love that old club. Cheap as hell and reliable so I can just leave it in place without having fuss over it every so often. Heck, I think its been over 8 months since I last looked at it. And if it develops spot of rust… hey, it’s a HiPoint. No biggie.
    That, plus big 230gr hollow points in the mag leaves me with a nice, secure feeling too,

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