A family in Chesterfield County, VA survived a violent encounter with a naked home intruder last week.  The Lewis family describes the intruder as looking "possessed" and "having the strength of four men." 

Apparently, the man of the house encountered the home intruder first (a naked woman) and felt threatened enough to retrieve his pistol.  When she wouldn't leave he fired warning shots in her direction until he ran out of ammo - 39 warning shots!  At this point, it looks like the whole family was involved in fighting her off.  The family is covered in bites and bruises shown in the video of this article and you can see a significant amount of blood in the house.   This was a fight for life and death.  I'm glad the good guys survived.  

It would seem that this woman was high on some sort of substance that made her extremely strong and resistant to pain.  I disagree with the Mr. Lewis' decision not to shoot the woman.  I wonder if part of his decision not to shoot her was because the "bad guy" here was a girl?  By shooting warning shots, he endangered the lives of his family and neighbors and destroyed his own house in the process.   Each of those holes in the walls of his house could have hit an innocent bystander.   Additionally, if she was as strong as four men, couldn't the home invader have taken the gun away from the home owner and used it to kill his family?  Each of us gun owners needs to look at this situation and think through what we would do and what measures we are willing to take to protect ourselves and our loved ones.  

I would have retrieved my pistol, pointed it at her chest and told her to leave.   If she made any move toward me, I would have shot her twice in the upper chest.  Hopefully, that would have ended the confrontation.  If not, Plan B is a single shot to the cranial ocular cavity (head shot).   Hopped up on drugs or not, that shot would have stopped her.

Many people own guns for self defense and think they will rise to the occasion when they need it.   In an encounter such as this one, you don't have time to think.  Your body will default to your level of training and practice.  Contact me if you'd like to build your skills and confidence with a gun.  

#RVAReady #RVATrain #HandgunTraining #SelfDefense

Last month, a man in Houston, Texas successfully fought off FIVE armed intruders with an AK-47.  He shot all five of the attackers, killing three of them and emerged uninjured.  He won the gunfight big-time!  

How many times have we heard from the anti-gun crowd that "no one needs more than ten rounds to defend themselves" or "no one should have a military style rifle"?   This is a great example of a time when a high capacity magazine and semi-automatic rifle were needed.  You are never going to wish you had less ammo in a gunfight.  I realize, this situation is not the norm but I'm pretty sure this man was glad he was prepared!  ​

This got me thinking about training for multiple opponents, which is not something I normally do.  After a little web research, I decided to try the El Presidente drill to test my skills.  This drill requires the shooter to stand hands raised with his back to three bad guy targets.  At the start signal, the shooter will then turn around, draw his gun, shoot each bad guy twice, reload and then shoot each target two more times.  The par time for this drill is ten seconds!  

I tried it three times and only once was under ten seconds.  Each time, I hit 10 or 11 of the shots into the bad guys' thoracic cavity (heart and lungs).   I look forward to improving my times and accuracy as I add this drill to my practice.  A couple of my initial runs are shown in the video below.  

A convenience store clerk in Richmond was charged with manslaughter after defending himself during a robbery at a convenience store where he worked.   How did self-defense become manslaughter?

Obviously, I don't know the details of this case.  My theory here is that the Mr. Simmons was charged with manslaughter because he fired several shots at Mr. Harris outside of the store while he was running away.  Your claim of self-defense ends the moment the threat on your life stops.  In this situation, Mr. Simmons should not have followed the bad guy outside of the store and he certainly should not have kept shooting.  If Mr. Simmons had stayed inside the store and called the cops, I do not think he would have been charged at all - even if Mr Harris had died from the injuries.

When I watch the news, I'm continually reminded about the reasons that I carry a handgun.  Two recent shootings were interesting:

1.  First, there was a shooting at a Knoxville, TN dentist office.  Based on the few details released, it looks like Harry Weaver showed-up at his wife's place of employment and shot her to death.  Before he could do further harm, a bystander, who was legally carrying a gun, shot the gunman several times and held him for police.  I commend this person for carrying a gun even to the dentist.  Many people don't bother carrying if they are going somewhere "safe".  Well done!  He or she likely saved other lives.

2.  Second, is the shooting in Aurora, Illinois at a manufacturing facility.  Gary Martin brought a gun to work and decided to start killing people when he found out he was being fired.  He killed five employees at the facility and wounded several others before he was shot and killed by police.  Like so many other mass shootings, the shooter had decided to kill as many people as possible without regard for his own life.  Martin had six prior arrests by Aurora police, including for domestic violence-related issues, and also had a felony conviction for aggravated assault in Mississippi in 1995, authorities said.  He was not allowed to own a gun.  It turns out we don't need more gun laws - bad guys don't follow the law!!!  If Illinois had more freedom and less restrictions of firearm ownership, this might have turned-out like the shooting in TN, stopped by a bystander with a gun.

Guns Save Lives!

Did you hear about the recent shootout at an Alabama McDonald's?  An unidentified masked man came in to McDonald's and started shooting.  This guy was clearly planning to kill everyone in the store - the McDonald's employee shown in video reported hearing about 15 shots.  Thankfully one of the customers was carrying a gun and was able to return fire.  Though he and his son were injured, they both survived.   The only one killed in this gunfight was the bad guy!  This Dad saved many lives. 

This is the true story of gun ownership in America.  As I've written several times before, guns level the playing field and give would-be victims the ability to fight back against their attackers.   

If the unthinkable happens, are you ready?

#GunsSaveLives
#RVAtrain
#RVAready

I just heard about a really unfortunate event at Colonial Shooting Academy last week: a Capitol police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg while training.  If you read the linked article, the  CSA employee suggests that the design of the holster may have caused the accident.  I disagree with his opinion - I have several SERPA holsters and I like them very much.   If used properly, the holster release does not put your finger anywhere near the trigger!

The main thing we should learn from this event is that using a holster with a loaded gun, without proper training, is dangerous.  I think many people assume they can buy a holster and intuitively use it safely.  This is a myth.  You should start by learning the proper way to draw (and re-holster) with your chosen rig and then practicing SLOWLY with an unloaded gun.  As you go through the motions ensure you never break the first two rules for safe gun handling (Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction, Always keep your finger off the of the trigger until your sights are on target).  Speed with come with practice but should never sacrifice safety.  Drawing from a holster is one of the topics of our Intermediate Defensive Handgun course. 

This week I saw two polar opposites of what can happen if you choose to carry a gun:

• First, the BAD.  I was shocked to read about the Road Rage incident on MTV's Teen Mom 2.  On a recent episode of the show, Jenelle Evans was driving with her 8 year old son in the car and followed someone home after he cut her off!  As if that wasn't enough, she ran over his mailbox and then pulled out a gun when he confronted her about it.  Her actions are inexcusable and demonstrate that she's never had proper training.  Thankfully no one was hurt or killed during this interaction.  If Jenelle was forced to shoot the man after following him home, she would have likely have gone to jail.  He was not a threat to her life and she had every opportunity to get out of the situation before it escalated.   
• Now, the GOOD.  Over the weekend, a private citizen stopped an active shooter at a back-to-school festival in Titusville, FL.  The citizen was lawfully carrying a firearm and shot the gunman after he opened fire on a crowd of about 150 people - including lots of kids.  Ironically, the gathering was called the "Peace in the City" festival.  I wonder if the shooter thought he'd have a bunch of unarmed victims to slaughter at a event called "Peace in the City?".  Two thoughts:

1. I'm glad the citizen carried his gun, even if he thought he wouldn't need it.  This is a good reminder to all of us, do you carry your gun all the time?
2. The private citizen also had the skills needed to stop this situation without any collateral damage.  The article says the bad guy was shot in the head but it doesn't say how many times the good guy shot.  A single shot to the head, placed correctly can stop even a dedicated opponent dead in their tracks.  Would you be able to confidently make the same shot?

Guns save lives!