Posted on 04/20/2018 10:30:40 AM PDT by Simon Green
On Sunday morning at about 4 a.m. in Glen St. Mary, Florida, a group of seven masked home invaders barged into a mobile home located on County Road 125. A shot was fired by one invader. Two of the home’s four occupants responded with armed force.
One of the residents had an AR-15 style rifle. The person with the AR said they fired over 30 rounds while repelling the invaders. One invader was killed and others wounded. None of the residents were injured.
As soon as the gunfight stopped, the residents called 911. Baker County deputies immediately responded, stopping a car they found fleeing the scene at a high rate of speed. Five people were arrested and a 16-year-old juvenile was taken to the hospital.
From news4jax.com:
GLEN ST. MARY, Fla – Deputies arrested five people, two of them teens, after a home invasion Sunday in Glen St. Mary escalated into a deadly shootout, according to the Baker County Sheriff’s Office.
The Sheriff’s Office said the five were among seven masked individuals armed with guns who barged into a mobile home on County Road 125 about 4 a.m. to confront four people staying there over a feud.
I have long maintained the AR-15 or other modern sporting rifles make excellent home defense firearms. The reasons are many, as was illustrated with this case.
The rifles are light, easy to use, and reliable. The cartridges used are adequate for home defense. There are several ammunition choices available to limit potential over-penetration. The magazine capacity is especially valuable when confronting several attackers.
The intimidation value of an identifiable platform such as the AR-15 can also help prevent a gunfight…or stop one in some cases.
Investigators found a mask with a bullet hole in it and considerable blood at the scene. While over 30 shots were fired by the defenders, only one of the shots appears to have resulted in a fatality. We know at least one shot was fired by the intruders, which didn’t hit any of the residents.
People who obtain their personal defense information from television dramas often think only one shot is needed to stop an attacker. The reality is, in the heat of a tense situation, many shots miss. Some will wound and few are fatal. That’s the reason people who study combat and self-defense don’t put a limit on the number of shots that may be necessary.
The victims told deputies they acted in self-defense when they turned their guns on the intruders, with one of them estimating he fired over 30 rounds from an AR-15 before the threat was over.
Afterward, the victims retreated to another part of the home before they dialed 911, according to the report. None of them was hurt during the shooting.
The same cannot be said for the intruders, several of whom were inside a vehicle deputies intercepted as it sped away from the mobile home off County Road 125.
One of them, Corey Lauramore, died of gunshot wounds to the head. An unidentified 16-year-old remains hospitalized, and a third suspect, William Lauramore, was treated and released to police.
The AR-15 type rifle is the most popular rifle in the United States. Uninformed commentary to the contrary, they are seldom used in crimes because rifles are rarely used by criminals. The vast majority of homicides and other crimes involving guns are committed with handguns, because handguns are much easier to conceal and transport.
Recent use of AR-15 type rifles in mass murders is cited as a reason to ban them. But AR-15s have been commonly available to the public since 1965. None were used in a mass murder until 2007, and that was a police-issued rifle.
What happened to increase the use of AR-15 rifles in mass murders? Very likely it was media coverage where the exposure created incentives for socially marginal individuals to achieve celebrity status by becoming mass murderers. Since 2012, much media focus has been directed at the AR-15, as many in the media want to see them banned.
From politifact.com:
Among other factors also worth considering is media coverage of mass shooters, which Adam Lankford, a criminology professor at the University of Alabama, said rewards perpetrators with fame and can lead to copycat effects.
“Although firearms availability is the primary reason why the United States has more public mass shooters than other countries, media coverage of perpetrators may largely explain why the United States has seen more public mass shooters and deadlier incidents over time,” Lankford said.
As this weekend’s home invasion in Florida demonstrates, the AR-15 makes an excellent home defense weapon.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/
Racking a weapon is an announcement that there’s about to be a gunfight. If the other side doesn’t intend to have one, they may choose to flee. If they were expecting one, it has those downsides and more.
So you’ve provided an alternative, which can be effective. What exactly are you disagreeing with though?
“...a suppressed SBR...”
I have one w/ laser and flashlight. Lots of fun to shoot at the range.
If they’re inside your home, all questions & warnings are complete. They’ve deliberately, with consideration & effort, breached your social & physical & legal boundaries. There is no need to “warn” them (they know the risks), there is no reason to keep a chamber empty just so you can waste time “warning” someone by filling it (when you may already need that round chambered), they have likely already prepared to confront you so you’re “warning” them of what they’re ready for.
.223 / 5.56 is notoriously unstable, likely to start tumbling & lose energy fast when having struck the first object - it’s not going to “pierce the walls of a dozen trailers”. Overpenetration has been well-addressed for this caliber, and is proven better than most.
A major point of using a carbine is accuracy & maneuverability: increasing odds of hitting the intended target, and so reducing other casualties.
Shotguns, however, have: limited capacity (don’t miss!), deep penetration (for some ammo), and the very same (& debatable) “spread” people tout as improving hit odds also improve odds others will be hit.
That would be the home invasion in Broken Arrow Oklahoma. Three invaders, three dead perps.
Thank you for asking.
In a military environment one is always highly conscious of weapon status, etc. When a weapon must “sleep” for an extended period of time and then be used in a panic, any sane man would recommend the original “point and click” interface: a revolver and/or pump-action shotgun.
“How far do you think 00 buck spreads 20 feet from the muzzle? “
IIRC, I tested something similar: 14” barrel, birdshot, spread was about 1” for each yard distance. Under 7” spread at 20 ft may improve your chances of a hit, but isn’t the “can’t miss” too many people believe in.
“Racking a weapon is an announcement that there’s about to be a gunfight. If the other side doesn’t intend to have one, they may choose to flee.”
If the other side doesn’t intend to have one, they shouldn’t choose to breach an occupied home in the most-armed & gun-happy country in the world.
It seems the mobile home was in a rural area by itself.
There was no mention of neighbors.
It is a very rural part of Florida.
shot guns are great if you live in Boston,
feel great while your are “sheltering in Place.”
in Texas shotguns work great for killing snakes.
but if you have a “front lawn” 300 yards long, you might pick an AR.
Just saying, shelter in place, in Texas that means bring more ammo.
I should not have said rack a round. I keep one in the chamber and I’m quick enough that you can’t hear it rack. If you don’t hit any studs or furniture a 5.56 could go through a few trailers. Not much to a trailer but after Hurricane Andrew ripped up Homestead they did start making them better.
No trailer park? Then have at it.
The racking say,” I’d much rather get hit with that pea shooter than the buckshot I’m gonna hit you with”.
As for knowing where I am, just look for the muzzle flash.
The racking was your warning
Mine cheerfully shoots high and low brass just fine. The only thing it doesn’t like is Winchester Universal. Then again, there are pump guns that don’t like Winchester Universal (let alone other semis) and it eats the Federal equivalent just fine so I don’t see that as a problem.
My problem with the pump action shotgun is the ever present possibility of short-stroking under stress - which is why the military and many police departments have gone to semi-auto shotguns. Flip off safety, keep pulling trigger until the ammo runs out.
I watched videos on youtube of lots of saigas shooting low brass. I bought a nice after market gas piston and gas regulator but to no avail. I sold the weapon and made a little.
Some few of them won’t, but mine is (and most are) perfectly happy firing any low brass that isn’t Winchester Universal. You may have had one of the ones with bad gas ports, aka the “vodka guns.”
Should have spoke with you before I sold it but I get frustrated and rash and I didn’t want to go to a gunsmith. I got offered cash and I took it.
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