At a recent family gathering, my brother-in-law asked a couple of pointed questions about defensive gun uses (DGUs). He was dubious about some recent legislation designed to make concealed carry easier. He didn’t believe successful defensive gun uses were common enough to justify the increased risk posed by increasing the number of civilians carrying handguns, and he wanted to know where I stood on the issue.
When I pressed him a bit, the source of his skepticism was easy to identify. Because he didn’t see reporting of what we call DGUs on CNN or Fox, they must not exist. Otherwise, they’d be headlines, right?
Good shoot: John Ganobcik, 27.
Consider these three examples. The news of these three events all broke within the last week or so. I could have easily chosen any number of others, but these three stories speak to a certain diversity within the firearms community and represent everything we stand for. These are, unquestionably, “good shoots.”
1. Off-body Carry, Kentucky
A woman, leaving a mall in Louisville, Kentucky, was assaulted by a man with a knife. After being forced into the passenger side of her car, and stabbed, she managed to retrieve a gun from her purse. She shot her assailant in the neck. Though he didn’t die, the injury was sufficient to end the attack and the idiot didn’t make it far before he was apprehended.
Good shoot? Unequivocally. Is this precisely the type of incident the opponents of the Second Amendment would have you believe can’t happen, and never happen? Of course.
McCloud, being carried out. Photo Credit Clarion Ledger.
2. Home invasion, Mississippi
What do you do when a convict escapes prison? The odds that he or she will show up on your doorstep, or in your house are pretty thin. But the fugitive is likely to show up somewhere, and it happened last week in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The escapee, the late Rafael McCloud, broke into a house and tied up a couple and their five-year-old son. When the husband got loose, he fought with McCloud who stabbed him. While some of the details are still hazy, initial reports stated the wife managed to leave the bathroom where they were being held and retrieve a handgun. She shot McCloud and untied her husband, who then shot McCloud again.
Good shoot? I’d say excellent shoot. Why do many of us keep guns in the house? Because we were Boy Scouts, and we took the be prepared thing to heart. We live our lives by the Scout motto. And it doesn’t mean we seek the worst and live in paranoia–otherwise, the Vicksburg homeowner would have plugged McCloud the moment he crossed the threshold. Instead, when the opportunity presented itself in the form of abject necessity, the couple did what they had to do to protect their family.
Steven Blacktongue, shot by customer at 7/11 on Sunday, March 13, 2016. Photo courtesy of Washington State Department of Corrections.
3. Concealed Carry, Washington
The last and most recent example is that of a humble Washington State man who was in the right place at exactly the right time. When Steven Blacktongue entered the local 7-11 with a hatchet and began chopping on the patrons, one refused to be a victim and pulled a gun from concealment (a gun he was properly permitted to carry) and shot Blacktongue. End of rampage.
Good Shoot? This one is another no-brainer. It was so obviously a good shoot that CNN ran it. CNN! Hell, even CNN sees the marketing potential of “7-Eleven customer shoots, kills hatchet-wielding attacker.“
What does it all mean?
There are a couple of casual lessons here. The first would be the age-old argument about the female of the species. The second is an adage almost as old, which suggests one might consider the practical application of cutting implements when facing an enemy equipped with superior firepower. Rock beats scissors — if you will.
But there’s a bigger message here, and that’s this: law-abiding citizens protect themselves with firearms every day in America. The Second Amendment works.
Please read Alan Korwin’s article on unilateral background checks. Basically it streamlines the process by keeping the names of people NOT legally permitted to buy a gun. If you’re not on that list, you’re good to go and the government doesn’t need to record all of your information.
God created man. Samuel Colt made them equal!”
May we all be blessed with the calm, and mindfulness to make shots in the center mass of the perpetrator’s body or between his/her eyes. Amen
Getting back to the three “good shoots”: Far be it from me to second guess the couple who was abducted in their own home by the escaped convict (a convicted murder if I’m not mistaken). However, you don’t want to find yourself in court explaining how your wife shot the suspect, then untied you and you shot him a few more times. I assume there was a logical reason why things went down that way, but if you have an unfriendly DA, you may have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.
He “obviously ” was not incapacitated to no longer be considered a threat!
Even if one believed that the Second Amendment was only about having the ability to form a militia, which it is not, in order to form a militia people with guns and the ability to use them are necessary. What are militia for? I submit they are for self defense, to secure and preserve a free State. People gathering together to defend a family, a neighborhood, a city. To be of real value for self defense, you not only need a gun, you need to be able to shoot it and hit what you intend. Even a shotgun requires a certain amount of use, in order to be proficient with it. Also, the Second Amendment does not say that if the government of the United States thinks we no longer need a militia, that the right of the people to keep and bear arms can be infringed.
Sadly, you are wrong about “Also, the Second Amendment does not say that if the government of the United States thinks we no longer need a militia, that the right of the people to keep and bear arms can be infringed.”
In Heller vs. DC in the majority opinion, written by the late, beloved Scalia himself, he opines “this amendment is subject to ‘reasonable restriction’. So, it IS the opinion of your wacked out government that if they deem it reasonable they may infringe upon your unalienable right. They already have. And at any time they do and will and can “legally” take your personal firearms and mine as well and you won’t do a thing about it! As LaVoy Finicum…oh, wait, too late!
Yes, guns do create a problem in the hands of angry people and criminals, but they do deter many more crimes as proven by our own police forces that display them. Although the proliferation of too many guns have made many police very jittery, they do give criminals second thoughts about using them as shown in the town in Georgia that required every resident to have one in their homes. It reduced the crime rate there quite a bit. Many store owners today are using that same scare tactic to reduce robberies. So guns do have a place in a completely open society.
Bob R, what??? How many guns are too many guns? According to the estimate of the National Rifle Association, (NRA), there are over 300 million firearms in private hands. Is 300 too much? 200 million, 100 million? While I am at my gun club, here in upstate New York, I have talked to more than a few city, county and state law enforcement people about firearms in private hands. I have never heard one of them say that he or she was “…very jittery…” about guns in the hands of competent, law-abiding adult citizen.
I’ll say it right now, most L.E.O.s would feel better about such nearby citizens bearing arms if they found themselves in dire straights in an all-out hand to hand struggle with a murderous criminal. I would help that L.E.O. go home to his family after his shift, but the criminal? Not so much. I have been carrying a concealed handgun that has been licensed by the State of New York, since 1963 when I was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps. I actually owned that same .357 magnum Smith and Wesson revolver for the four previous years that I was on active duty. In all of that time since 1963, I have never experienced a situation that would have required self-defense, or the defense of another in mortal danger from a miscreant. Would I come to the aid of a L.E.O. that needed such help? Yup, in a New York minute!
People who have anger management problems, adjudged dangerous psychotics and violent criminals should not have firearms. Now let’s return to the real world where such people can easily acquire such instruments on the black market. Since the police cannot be at your side every minute, it is up to the individual to be prepared to defend himself or herself. If you never have to face mortal danger, count your lucky stars. If you walk in a public venue, or might be confronted by a home invader, BE PREPARED!
Oh, by the way, I have never committed mass murder with any of the guns that I own. Hey, I guess that’s just because I’m a competent, law-abiding adult citizen. At least the NICS Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia, says so when I show up at a gun dealer store.
In response to Joe McHugh’s comment on “jittery police”. Lately in the news, there have been too many incidents of police reacting to citizens carrying any weapon by shooting not only once, but enough times to kill an elephant. Police now carry much more fire power with guns that hold nearly three times more then their old .38 revolvers and do not hesitate to use all that fire power. Since there are so many guns out there, it has caused the “shoot first and ask questions later” mentality among too many police. I guess you can’t blame them for trying to protect themselves, but since you live in an area that is not likely to have such incidents, your police force would be less likely to react as they do in higher crime areas. I do advocate self protection with firearms at home, but not the old west style where everyone carried and caused too many shootouts. We have police now to replace the wild west scenario and hopefully be there when needed.
Bob R, What??? I have been carrying my concealed handgun in New York State since 1963. I have regularly visited all of the areas in my home town of Syracuse, NY. In all of that time I have never had to draw my handgun for a means of self-defense.
Why would a police officer shoot a law-abiding citizen who is carrying a concealed handgun? Do the police in your area do so? There must be a lot of dead law-abiding citizens who were found with their concealed and licensed handguns in their holsters. You might consider moving to a different city where the police concentrate on actual criminals.
Look at rural America, we are the Militia as I was told. The LEO in my area last time came a day after the incident, comment do you own a firearm. So sad to see this Great Country go down the tubes.
Why would you admit to a cop-any cop-that you owned any firearms? You can count on the fact the cop wrote it down and went back to his “reporting system” entered it so every cop in the western hemisphere knows you’ve got a firearm.
Tell ’em you’re hell with a baseball bat, anything but telling them you own a firearm!
The only people that aren’t in a system (Federal, State or City program) are those who have never obtained a handgun permit or never bought a firearm over-the-counter with legal documentation. Those people who have firearms and are completely “out of the system” are very, very rare. Those rare types are either very, very smart OR a criminal…since criminals don’t fill out forms to purchase weapons for criminal use.
If anyone has a CHL (Concealed Handgun License), they’re in the “system”. Who obtains a license but doesn’t purchase or have access to a firearm? If anyone has purchased a firearm, whether online, at a gun-show, at Walmart, etc., and filled out paperwork for the weapon, then they’re in the “system” too.
Even if someone bought a firearm without filling out paperwork, but used a credit card or check, then they’re in the “system” too.
Government officials already know who has firearms – or at the very least, the possibility of owning one, whether someone admits to it or not. It’s a sad but true state we live in now….
Erick, I must be one of those “very, very rare” individuals who have “invisible” rifles and shotguns. I purchased an
M1 Garand rifle from the Director of Civilian Marksmanship program in 1958. That was before the Federal form #4473 had to be filled out and kept on file for 20 years.
Since that time I have purchased and sold rifles and shotguns in private face to face transactions. None of these transfers of ownership were recorded by a licensed gun dealer. There is no record that I have ever bought or sold a rifle or shotgun in any government records keeping system.
However, New York State obviously knows about my handgun that I am licensed to carry concealed. If the day ever comes when a Jack-booted government thug arrives at my door demanding that I turn over my handgun, I will surrender it without so much as a verbal complaint. If the government thug asks about any other firearms that I might own, I will deny such ownership. The most sensitive metal detector would not uncover the whereabouts of my long guns.
Wait a second, I just remembered that I sold all of them last week, out of my car trunk near a local gun show. I can’t remember the buyer’s name, and no Federal form #4473 was required for the sale. You believe me, don’t you Erick? I know that the authorities would have to believe me, because they have no records of me even buying firearms. And that is just the way it should be. Fear the government that fears your guns.
Gus are useful for self defense but the Second Amendment pertains to needing guns to form a militia. It is good the Second Amendment works in that it keeps the gun grabbers away from our guns but that is not why it was written.
Dan you need to learn a lot more about the 2nd amendment there is way more to it than what you seem to think
You have the wrong understanding of the 2nd amendment. Or you are attempting to plant misinformation!
Both the Heller vs. DC and McDonald vs. City of Chicago supreme court decisions (among others) held the constitution protected the individual right to self-defense.
A militia can be an insurgency or a lot of other thing. Nobody is going to line up, 100yds a part in ranks and shoot at each other until the Dragoons show up or they break ranks for a bayonet charge.
Historically, in the American Revolutionary war, small unit tactics were nearly normal . Frances Marion-AKA “The Swamp Fox” fought a guerrilla war against the British in the south. They defeated Cornwallis, forcing him to flee north, where he was forced to ultimately surrender British forces to the revolutionaries. Weren’t Marion and his men part of a militia and guerrillas? A guerrilla military.
The militia is a legal term with a legal definition.
Every adult citizen is the militia.
If you don’t own a firearm, cleaning kit, ammo and carrying bags you’re failing in your duty as a citizen.
There are no actions to take to join. Your existence is your membership. Even if you took the most communistic view of the amendment, it is an individual right due to who the militia is.
Dan, What??? Please don’t tell me that I have been mistaken about the Second Amendment for all of my adult life.
Up to now, I have regarded the Second Amendment as being an individual right to keep and bear arms.
I was actually under the impression that the prefactory clause was not a condition for the operative clause. And when Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the same thing in the majority opinion of District of Columbia et al. v. Heller, decided June 26, 2008, you can just imagine my sense of relief and validation in regarding the Second Amendment as being an inherent right of individual citizens.
Alas, now you, Dan, assure us that a militia/military unit of soldiers would be marching around without rifles unless someone had the foresight to include the Second Amendment into the Bill of Rights. How embarrassing it would have been for our soldiers to perform the manual of arms without the right to actually bear arms? You can almost see the soldiers on the parade field, moving their empty hands in unison as the sergeant commands, “…left shoulder arms, right shoulder arms, present arms, etc, etc”.
Wait a minute! Would the government actually field a military unit that couldn’t bear arms without the Second Amendment? Call me crazy but I’m almost sure that the absence of the Second Amendment would not have disarmed our soldiers. Dan, are you really sure that “…the Second Amendment pertains to needing guns to form a militia.”? I don’t think that I ever heard, or read about a government that couldn’t find a way to arm its soldiers without an amendment to its Constitution. Dan, perhaps you could cite some examples of other countries that needed a special permission written into its Constitution to enable it’s soldiers to bear arms. Dan, I know that some of the other readers would also appreciate clarification on this matter.
Dan, bless your little heart. During the aftermath of Katrina, my community was our “militia.” You can’t form a militia without guns (dduuuuhhh) in the hands of citizens to protect our family and our community. So….the need for self defense in this example, created the militia, because no one was remotely close by to come to our aid (911 didn’t work for some odd reason). Without the guns, we would only be a group of victims. That is why “Shall not be infringed” was purposely part of the right. You don’t form a militia, then wait for someone to bring them guns.
Again, to clarify, You don’t need guns to form a militia, it’s the need for self defense that forms the militia.
God Bless!!!
These incidents should be, “no brainers.” But it still doesn’t resonate with liberal folks. They take out life, home, and auto insurance, but they won’t take out insurance on their protection, by owning/carrying a firearm, and don’t recognize your right to do so.
The bigger question is, Will the 2nd Amendment work as it was intended by the framers of the Bill of Rights, in preventing the usurpation of power from the American people, to the elite? That battle is just around the corner, and it won’t be pretty.
Tom Horn, Your last question is astute. You asked if the Second Amendment will work as intended by the framers of the Bill of Rights, in preventing usurpation of power from the American people, to the elite. I would say that it has already done that very thing. The big-eared biped in the Oval Office has been obsessed with making the Second Amendment irrelevant. This effort became more blatant when he, and his Democrat lackeys in the Senate, tried to ram through a gun registration bill, oops, I mean a “background check” bill in 2013. Question: Why did that bill mandate that the government require you to record the serial number of the Firearm being purchased on Federal form #4473? After all, the good people at the NICS center in Clarksburg, West Virginia, would have already cleared the prospective gun buyer before the sales transaction has been completed.
Think of it, the government wants to know what gun a competent, law-abiding adult citizen keeps in his home. This is not a “crime fighting measure” it is a necessary prelude to gun confiscation. The government can’t seize firearms if it doesn’t know who has them.
Fear the government that fears your guns. By the way, even if obama had managed to get a gun registration bill through the Senate and the House of Representatives it would have been a moot effort. I mean, I don’t own a firearm and I’m almost sure that there aren’t more than two dozen privately owned shotguns in the entire United States. If you don’t believe that this is an accurate statement, I challenge you to check your own home. Call me crazy but I’ll bet that you won’t be able to find a gun anywhere you look. Pssst! The Second Amendment states that your right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. That means that one does not have to register a rifle or shotgun with the very entity that wants to disarm the American people.
Don’t even give the government the chance to abuse your right to own a firearm.