This just came in via the Rangemaster mailing list.

Student Involved Incident #51

Monday evening, at 10:40pm, we had the 51st  self defense incident involving a Rangemaster student that we know of. This one occurred in an upscale area in the Southeast part of the county, just outside the Memphis city limits.

The male resident had just arrived home, exited his car, and was walking up the sidewalk to his home when he was accosted by two armed robbery suspects. A struggle ensued, during which the homeowner was shot in the thigh by one of the suspects. The homeowner’s wife was at the front door to greet her husband, and saw the attack. She ran upstairs, got her handgun, opened the bedroom window and engaged the suspects with several shots from the window. She hit one suspect, and both fled.

The homeowner was taken to a local hospital and treated. About 1:00am, police received a call from Delta Medical Hospital on Getwell about a male with a gunshot wound. He was positively identified by the victim as one of the robbers, and was arrested and transferred to the jail unit at the Med. The second suspect was still at large at the time of the police report.

Comments:

1. Both the homeowner and his wife have been through training here. The wife’s ability to engage the suspects likely saved her husband’s life. Had she not intervened he probably would have been shot more.

2. The victim owns several businesses, including a couple of convenience stores in Hickory Hill. It appears he was followed home, and possibly deliberately targeted on the theory that he would be carrying the store’s cash. Be alert, and as you draw near your home or other destination, check your rear view mirrors! If you have made some turns and the same vehicle is right behind you, don’t go home.

3. Practice! Not all defensive shootings involve a suspect a few feet away. In this instance, the wife had to shoot past her husband from the second floor window, without hitting him.

Point #3 is something I touched upon in my recent article about XS Sights. You just don’t know and cannot predict what a self-defense situation is going to be like. Odds may say it’s likely to go in some particular way, but wouldn’t it just be your luck that you get to be the statistical anomaly?  It’s one big reason I stopped using the XS Sights and got better sights (Dawson Precision). It’s also a reason that we need to practice things we may not always think or want to practice, like shooting groups at 25 yards.

The KR Training December 2009 Newsletter is posted.

Many classes coming up. I’m trying to figure out which ones I’m going to help with and which ones I’m going to take.

This is cool, but it’d be nice if it was a real RSS feed.

One of the best parts of the newsletter? 21 things a burglar won’t tell you:

Continue reading →

RevolverRob weighs in with his take on defensive shotguns. Good read.

I’d like to add to the pump vs. semi-auto debate.

Pumps are simpler machines, run almost any ammo you can feed the gun, cheaper to purchase, can handle some abuse and neglect better. But they will also recoil harder and are a more complex manual of arms to operate. Semi-autos have a simple “point and click” interface, and you should be taking the time anyway to find the best ammo for the gun (that works, that patterns, etc.) so the ammo finickiness shouldn’t be too big an issue.

Think about the operator of the firearm. If it’s me, I could care less. Pump is fine. I’m a big guy, the recoil won’t bother me, operating the action is just fine and dandy. Now let’s take a small statured woman or even a child; something with less recoil could be beneficial to them (consider low-recoil rounds as well, which are more than adequate for home-defense shotgunning). Is the operator someone who practices? If so, pump might be OK as there’d be less risk of short-stroking. If not, the simpler interface of “point and click” from a semi-auto may serve them better.

There’s no blanket answer here. Merely adding more things to the mix for one to consider.

Speaking of all of this, KR Training will be having another Defensive Long Gun course on January 23, 2010. I took it last year with my AR. I wonder if I might want to take it again but with a shotgun. Hrm.

For those of you that think “it can’t happen to me” because of whatever reason, like you live in a good neighborhood, think again.

Brigid recounts her recent experience, along with reinforcing lessons learned.

Bob S. provides some perfect examples of why you and only you can be responsible for taking care of yourself.

I believe the world is full of mostly good people. But there are evil people out there and all it takes is one to ruin your life.