If you’re a parent of a young woman, it’s probably your worst nightmare. She’s home alone. There’s a criminal on the loose in the area. You, the authorities and everyone else are miles and miles away.
The father of Kimber Wood (is it slightly ironic that her first name is the same as that of a popular gun manufacturer?), 17, of Spokane, Washington, knows exactly how that feels. Kimber was all alone when a suspected car thief entered the family residence. How this brave teen responded was a product of her upbringing.
“Your heart feels like it is going out of its chest. I couldn’t breathe well, but I knew I had to,” Kimber told the local news affiliate.
“I was laying in bed watching TV and my boyfriend called my parents. They warned me,” Wood added, with respect to the prowling, alleged carjacker.
She called her dad and asked her if she could keep a gun close by just in case the man tried to enter the home. Smart thinking. Because that man would enter the home. Although nervous, she would be ready for him.
“I heard footsteps and he went upstairs,” Wood said. She immediately called her dad again, who taught her how to safely and responsibly use a firearm. He stayed on the phone with her as the man got closer and closer to her room.
“I was laying right there on the bed and he came in and that’s when I crawled out go get the gun from my pillow (and I) sat back there,” Wood said.
SEE ALSO: Women Defending Themselves is ‘Unrealistic and Offensive,’ Says Canadian Minister
“He popped in and I said, ‘Who the **** are you?’ His head was right there,” she continued, pointing to the doorway. “I had the gun straight in his face and he ran.”
Wood pursued the invader as he fled the scene. “I knew I wanted to be as close to him as I could, and your hands are shaking, but you know you have to have a steady aim,” Wood said.
When he was out of the house, she fired off a single round. With no one around to help her, she figured it was the best way to ensure he didn’t return.
“I fired a shot at him because I didn’t want him back,” Wood said.
Local authorities praised the young woman’s actions.
“When I found out a 17-year-old defended herself I thought, ‘That’s fantastic,'” a representative of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department said.
Meanwhile, her dad couldn’t have been prouder.
“That is something you teach the kids. Lessons we went over, and over, and you think they’ll never have to use them, and today proved that they did and it worked,” Wood’s father said.
***
Anti-gunners continually argue that women should be treated like children in that they should not have access to firearms; that the presence of a firearm actually makes an environment more dangerous for women.
From the Trace.org, the Bloomberg-funded blog:
But the available evidence does not support the conclusion that guns offer women increased protection. Myriad studies show that the NRA and its allies grossly misrepresent the actual dangers women face. It is people they know, not strangers, who pose the greatest threat. There is also strong, data-based evidence that shows owning a gun, rather than making women safer, actually puts them at significantly greater risk of violent injury and death.
The problem with this research is that it doesn’t account for certain environmental and social considerations. In other words, who were the victims in these studies? What was their socio-economic background? Who were their associates?
I may agree with the guns-are-bad conclusion if you are a female prostitute living in a meth house controlled by a marauding street gang. Bringing a firearm, or any weapon for that matter, into that cluster-fudge will probably backfire. The best thing to do under those circumstances is exit the situation. Find a new career. Leave the residence and that “social circle.” Get help!!!
But to make a sweeping conclusion that all women should not own guns, nor learn about gun ownership is insane! It’s sexist, actually. Responsible, law-abiding women are more than capable of defending themselves. Not only that, gun ownership for these women undoubtedly increases their safety (In another context, would you rather have your daughter know CPR or not know CPR?). Ms. Wood is just another example that proves that point.
Put yourself in that scared young lady’s shoes, before you start preaching about what you would have done.
17 year old Kimber did what she needed to do to protect herself and home on the advice of the person she most looked up to. She called a responsible adult before arming herself, that’s better than going rogue and harming herself or others.
Awesome ending. Most liberals would have much preferred that the young lady was defenseless, and for the police to investigate the aftermath instead. Go 2A!
Teaching young people to handle and defend themselves today is extremely important. Police will tell you that they can do nothing until the crime has happened. Their response time is not immediate. It appears that the criminals have more rights than the law abiding citizens have at this time in our history. You have only to look at the riots that are happening in this country. They call it free speech. Destroying property and lives. The police do not stop them. Question !Do you want to depend on them to protect you against a criminal? Teach the young.Arm them. It will be their best alternative to being a victim.
The cops actually prefer you shoot your own attacker. They under a lot of heat right now.
Well, if she was living in Kalifornia, her father would have been arrested for allowing a minor access to a firearm. With the addition of 1) Unsafe storage of a firearm. 2) Unlawful discharge of a handgun by a minor 3) Reckless endangerment 4) Possession of a standard capacity magazine…by the time Calif. DOJ was finished with this family it would have been less traumatic to have just let the Perp sexual assault(i.e. rape) the daughter….and God help them if the Perp was one of the Governor’s precious Brown/Homeless/Illiterate People!
Yeah, what I said was distasteful but nothing closer to the truth…. run as far as you can from this state of CA!
Similar case happened to me with a complete stranger in my home. The guy was in a tussle with a family member, and had also threatend to kill me personally. Shooting into an occupied residence was the charge (as if it was a drive by). Had the felony reduced to a misdemeanor 17.b and then 1203.4 expunged years later haven’t stepped foot in CA since.. I honestly thinking getting beat up IF that’s all he would have done would have been the easier path in Kalifornistan.
After a shooting at my place it took 30 min for a deputy from an adjacent county to come and another 10 to 15 min for deputies from my county and another adjacent county to show up ambulances came soon after for the wounded and dead. The girl was a lot luckier than I was.
As a parent of three daughters also trained on when and how to shoot, I say BRAVO to Ms. Kimber, but to the reporter(s) of this article I have to say IDIOT(s). There is too much personal information available to track down an attractive young women living in a remote area. The public does not need such details, we must protect privacy much more. God bless!
The mindless robots at Bloomberg and Soros’ beck and call – Everytown, Brady, Giffords, et al – would have this young lady murdered rather than have the ability to defend herself. In their eyes, SHE’S the bad guy for having the gall to use a weapon to defend herself. Ironic, isn’t it, that those same robots have never turned to their masters and asked, “But masters, you are surrounded by men with guns … why is it acceptable for YOU to be defended by armed men and not anyone else?” But this would be expecting the brain-dead to think, something that isn’t going to happen.
Awesome job Kimber! See, responsible parents should train their kids, at a young and reasonable age, how to use a firearm(s) and use it efficiently, safely and for protection. This is responsibility to the highest standards! Good job at keeping scumbags in check!
Great job Girl great job!!!!!!!!!
As indicated in the article, you can manipulate data in any manner possible to get the outcome you want. Problem is this is promoted by the media as unassailable fact. I just wish heartwarming stories like this girls would get the headlines, not some murdering fool with a gun.
Those “studies” that suggest women are more likely to be seriously injured by using a firearm to defend themselves were purposely designed to defend the anti-firearm bozos. I think that young woman should have been more assertive towards the intruder. Aways remember to shut your eyes when discharging a 12 ga. In a dark room so you don’t get flash blinded.
I disagree with you Mr. Bennet. This woman woman did exactly the right thing. She used a weapon she was familiar with and had access to. She positioned herself in a location of relative security and concealment and waited for the threat to come to her. She defeated the threat whit a show of deadly force but did not resort to using that force unnecessarily. Her only mistake was firing her weapon after the threat was over. An over-zealous prosecutor could possibly charge her with a crime. Also, your recommendation about closing your eyes to prevent “flash blindness” is ridiculous.
I agree with you totally with everything except the flash blinding. In a completely dark room your eyes will dilate open to gather more light. The flash from a shotgun or any firearm with a ported barrel, flash suppressor or muzzle break can make your vision temporarily impeded. The pupils will contract to the bright flash and will need a few moments to dilate again. The trick to overcoming this problem is to close one eye when you fire the weapon and open it immediately after, then only one eye will be involved. Any doubts, go into a dark room and get used to the low light condition. Shut one eye and turn the lights on and off, then check your vision in each eye. Never shut both eyes though, a lot can happen in a heartbeat.
Actually, after watching the video, it’s evident that she was using a .22 LR revolver. Your advice regarding a 12 gauge shotgun is still good, though.
>>>“I was laying in bed watching TV and my boyfriend called my parents. They warned me,” Wood added, with respect to the prowling, alleged carjacker.<<<
Does not compute.
Why did the boyfriend know there would be a prowler?
If the parents knew there would be a prowler, why did they not run home or call the cops?
These articles continue to lack proofreading…
he didn’t. in the video, the girl says they heard a bunch of police sirens, so her boyfriend called her dad/parents. she asked if she could retrieve one of her dad’s guns for protection just in case(the sirens were from police officers responding to a car jacking and looking for the suspect(who ended up being the one who who broke into the house.))
If find it odd the article never mentioned she called 911 before the crook never gained entry to the house. Seems like after calling her dad and asking to use the gun, at that point when she hung up with him, she would have but the article says she called her dad again. But never said she called the police. Doesn’t that strike anyone else as strange?? Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for her defending her home and herself. But to not have dialed 911 immediately?? Just sounds ….. weird.
I also find this strange. Even if it’s going to take the police more than a few minutes to arrive, which might have been the case here in what appears to be a rural area, at least call 911 to cover your derriere should you end up shooting the intruder while he’s inside your home and is presenting an immediate threat to your life. Don’t agree with her firing a shot, even if it was just a warning one and not aimed at him, once he was out of the house, fleeing, and no longer posing a direct threat.
If you call 911 before a crime is committed, the cops will come and go,…maybe they’ll come, and that won’t stay long. As for the shot she fired, It’s called making a believer out of a criminal who may otherwise revise his plan and return. Put yourself in the shoes of a 17 year old girl. Her biggest fear as the peep left, was that he would return, and the perp gets to choose the time, and It’s not necessarily while the police are there investigating. This young lady can now feel reasonably confident this perp will not be back, and the perp is reasonably sure the gun handler will use it against him if he does. Spare us your unreasonable and emotional assumption that the perp was no longer a threat just because he exited the house. That is typical bliss-ninny rationale.
Thank goodness for her upbringing and her courage but if she had actually struck him as he was fleeing she and her family could have been exposed to criminal and liable situations. A shot in the dirt would’ve been just as effective.
It stated she actually did not shoot AT him – just fired to frighten him.
They’re out in BFE so it looked from the video like she shot toward a field or some wooded area.
Yeah I was thinking the same about the “warning shot”. In her quote she said she fired “at”. That alone could possibly lead to criminal charges. While I completely agree with her decision to use the gun to defend her home, that could have ended up really messy. Glad the sheriff turned a blind eye to that one. I’m hoping what she meant to say was she fired off a round up in the air or something along those lines.
Amen!
“When I found out a 17-year-old defended herself I thought, ‘That’s fantastic,’” a representative of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department said.”
Always good when Law Enforcement supports the right to self defense. It makes me sick when I hear about people being charged with a crime just for trying to defend themselves
I’m happy the person defended themselves and that her dad took the time to teach her. She is safe because of it. I taught my kid how to handle guns at 5. I took him to the range and showed him what they could do too. I never had a problem with that kid trying to play with a real firearm. So train your kids early and often, because snowflake laws are putting more and more repeat offenders onto the streets.