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U.S.A. – -(AmmoLand.com)- A News Report from Monroe, Louisiana by the Monroe News-Star-
A woman was asleep in her bed when she heard her husband’s voice. She heard the sounds of a fight down the hall and her husband shout in pain. She rolled out of bed and grabbed the gun they keep between the mattresses. She moved toward the center of the house where she saw several men beating her husband. At least one of the intruders was armed. The armed man hit her husband with his gun, and then pointed the gun at her. The defending woman shot one of the attackers several times. All three intruders ran from the home and drove away.
Police arrested one of the attackers at a nearby hospital and arrested a second man soon after. The attackers were charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Each was held in jail on a hundred thousand dollars bail.
Comments
Our defender did a lot of things right during a very difficult situation. It is hard to face a lethal threat when you’re roused from sleep, but hearing your spouse shout in pain is a powerful stimulant. Being hit in the head with a gun can kill you, so our defender’s husband faced a lethal, immediate, and unavoidable threat. The wife saw and also recognized that threat. The husband faced a disparity of force since he was attacked by several armed men. If the husband was seated or kneeling on the ground, then he also was in an inferior defensive position. The wife also has the right to aid an innocent third party, so she, like her husband, could respond with lethal force in defense. It is difficult to shoot an attacker when they are grabbing an innocent party we don’t want to shoot, but our defender did it. Also, our defender stopped shooting as the attackers ran away. She called 911 and stayed at the scene. She gave a description that allowed the police to arrest the attacker at the hospital.
She might have saved her husband’s life, and it is common to need stitches if not surgery following an attack like this. I’m glad she was armed.
There are several things we can learn from their experience. The news report called it a forced entry, but the report failed to mention a broken door or window. That sounds like the front door could have been unlocked so the attackers had an immediate entry with a minimum of warning. We want to lock our doors. The sound of a breaking door is an instant alarm and it buys us time to react. It is visible evidence to the police that the attackers were not invited into the home. To give us more time, we can add a motion-activated light and chime outside our door. Often, we can do that even if we’re renting the house.
The firearm between the mattresses was “in use” the same way a fire extinguisher is “in use” as it sits in its rack on the wall. Both a fire extinguisher and a firearm are critical tools that will be needed immediately for defense. We keep the fire extinguisher charged and we should keep the firearm loaded as it sits “in use”. Unlike the fire extinguisher, the self-defense firearm should be secure from unauthorized users when it is not being carried. The good news is that a secure and loaded firearm can be available in seconds. The bad news is that seconds can be an eternity.
The wife was asleep, so it is entirely understandable that she was disarmed. If the husband was awake and dressed, then he could have been and should have been, armed with his defensive tools. I bet he is today.
Defending an innocent person from a lethal threat should not be a fair fight. Our defender was under no duty to retreat, in part because her retreat would have increased the risks to her husband. The wife did not need to announce herself to the attackers. She did not need to step into the lighted center of the home where the bad guys could see her. She did not need to wait until the attackers threatened her with a gun before she defended herself and her husband. She is lucky she wasn’t shot.. and we don’t want to depend on luck.
Note that her shots stopped the attack, but it was a “psychological stop” rather than physically incapacitating the attackers so they could not continue. It is a difficult shot when attackers are moving and or next to an innocent party. There is no mention if she fired additional shots in her home that missed her attackers.
In a similar situation, we could shoot from the darkened bedroom or hallway. The risk is that another innocent party might step into the line of fire. What we can do, and what we should do might be in conflict. Now is the time to study the laws of self-defense in your state so you know how you may act. Practice armed defense so you know what you can do in an emergency.
If you can, get training on shooting in low-light conditions.
About Rob Morse
Rob writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily, and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. Rob was an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.
Good thing this didn’t occur in a place like Los Angeles or Massachusetts where the law requires the firearm to be locked up — she and her husband would probably be dead. Those places still have the law on the books in spite of the DC v Heller ruling.
per Rob’s statement about the handgun being “in use” just like the fire bottel hanging on the wall, I’d say they would have been in compliance with even California’s unsafe “storage laws”. But then, that’s most likely the call of the on scene coppers.
Of course, the woman could always claim “I don’t remember HOW I got to the gun, I was focussed on helping my Husband NOTHING else mattered, and that’s all I remember”. (now shut up and go away)
It is good to live in a State that has good laws concerning the use of firearms to protect oneself, or others, wherever you might be.
It wasn’t a psychological stop, if police arrested one at the hospital. Someone must have been wounded.
There is also the issue of unwanted intruders in an occupied dwelling, almost always a justiication for the applicatioi of lethal force against them. just enough to make them disappear or stop what they’re doing.
Sounds like this TigerLilly did precisely what needed to be done. Only regret is the shots fired were not lehtal…. and that one was appparently intouched. but, she DID stop the threat. Then she stopped the firing.
We need about a hundred million more like her.
Glad it turned out OK. Not enough data presented in the article, though. Did she shoot the armed attacker? Why shoot 2 not all 3? Quite obviously, one of these gents is out there and who knows if he will return with “friends?”
Odds are that he will never to that house…nice pics of the intruders at the paper’s link.
Ever notice that thugs confronted with deadly force tend to retreat and cower? Yet the left never acknowledges the playing field being level, they sooner have more victims led to the slaughter.
These great responses never tend to get the light of day.
Go girl. She did what she had to do to get the bad guys away from her husband. Lucky man. I think my wife would have folded. Then again, I don’t get out of bed unarmed —— ever. She did her shooting while the bad guys were in the house and didn’t shoot anyone who was simply trying to escape. That kept her out of jail. Robbers, murderers and such tend to die of natural causes, natural to their line of work. We all have insurance on our vehicles and homes etc. We hope we never have to use it… Read more »