Welcome to Aftermath, a portion of our First Line email newsletter where Attorney Anthony L. DeWitt walks you through a real-life self-defense incident and shares his key takeaways.
New to his community, an Air Force Senior Airman is credited with saving several lives in a deadly neighborhood shooting. Just days after welcoming his fourth child, he found himself facing a violent gunman who had already killed two people. After then setting his own home on fire, the shooter began firing dozens of rounds into nearby houses.
Several rounds struck the defenderās home, including his childrenās room. After securing his family, the Airman armed himself and confronted the attacker, shooting him in the leg. The shooter later died from injuries related to the fire, not the gunshot wound.
What factors should influence your decision to engage an active shooter beyond your immediate household? Do you have the training and mindset to make a high-stakes decision under extreme stress?
First of all, thatās what Joe Biden said we should do. But to the point of engaging an active shooter, do you have it in you? This would be considered combative; do you have any training for this situation? There is military training and there is military experience. Military training prepares you, but military experience is way different than training. How someone acts or responds are different to each and every individual and you have to be prepared for the unexpected.
Going after someone after watching John Wick will most likely get you killed.
A person could have all the best training and gear and not have the will to pull the trigger when push comes to shove. That is something everyone needs to deal with BEFORE picking up a weapon. We need to prepare our minds first, make sure we can and will do what is needed, then train our bodies to do it.
Reading the story, the major influencing factor would be the shooter firing randomly into the houses, especially when rounds go through my kidās room.
Without a second thought, I would have to send him to Jesus.
CA Prosecutor: āBut, you could have still moved your family to a safer and more secure place inside your home and wait for law enforcement to arrive. You didnāt need to engage the shooter.ā
I donāt know exactly how I would react. Iām behind a keyboard (thatās a lie, Iām using an iPhone) and can sound brave. One thing Iām sure of, after ensuring my familyās safety, the AR-15 would be coming out of the safe.
And this, Olā Bean, is one of the BIGGEST reasons I donāt live in California. Texas has no duty to retreat. We are also not required by law to keep everything in a safe until āneeded.ā Itās recommended., butā¦
Retreating farther into your house and waiting for PD to arrive when the threat is OUTSIDE your home isnāt the answer. The homeowner would at least need to watch out a window and keep tabs on the shooter in order to make a more informed decision to retreat, engage or to just be a good witness for PD.
Depending on what the shooter is actually shooting, a round could go through several walls and still exit out the back of the building after perforating any bodies trying to shelter in place.
THE GLOVES COME OFF!. GAME OVER THANKS FOR PLAYINā----- You are in possession of a Firearm (LEGALLY), You are by God hopefully TRAINED IN USE OF SAID WEAPON. You have a āMADMANā randomly shooting up your street, a fire was started in his home(weather he set it or it spontaneously combusted isnāt relevant here). Bullets start raking my home, MY KIDS ROOM!, My neighbors are in dangerāI WILL VENTALATE THE SUMBYTCH as my family calls 911.
Weāve become a Nation of Sheep!. Sure we have a small number of wonderful SHEEP DOGS WILLING to engage a THREAT!
Waiting for Law Enforcement?, TODAY? are you seriously damaged? Did you hit your head recently? HARD?
Heās shooting at you and your house, Heās NOT selling Girl Scout cookies! or AMWAY! (Truth be told heās NOT shooting @ you directly I get that but heās randomly trying to up the body count it doesnāt matter if heās AIMING at you bullets thrown about wildly donāt care about taking your head, they go where they are told NO THINKINGākinda like a Demoncrat huh?)
THERE IT IS! Case closed (then opened by āTHE COURTSā in which case may God have mercy on yer soul!)
IF you donāt know by now if you have the Cojones to face these ARMED THREATS? Please sell yer Guns!
If you donāt know 'how yer going to act, IF youāre going to FREEZE, HESITATE by nowāPlease sell yer guns.
I donāt say this to be cruel whatsoever. You may get yerself very dead. As The Mod said
You SHOULD get on with these questions next thing on yer TO DO list. Maybe itās best if you cower in the corner being a MEAT SHIELD along with your family. WHAT? TOO BRUTAL?
So what you are suggesting is guns are for killing people. If you are not going to use them for that, sell them.
Never mind going hunting or out to the range to engage in the joy of shooting.
You must be able to kill people to have one. It appears that all you think about is the use of weapons for killing people, man. You sound like every Democrat I know.
So if his family was in a safe place, why could he not remain there until police arrived? Stand guard; my family comes first when it is about safety.
So he decided to grab his weapon and his cape and go out and drop the guy. Personally, I do not have a problem with this action if he is competent. Keep in mind he is now going on the hunt and leaving his family at risk. Also, if he is not a crack shot, he may hit his neighbors, along with the fact that if the cops show up and see him with a weapon, he stands a good chance of the cops shooting him. Risk versus reward: saving lives is a good thing; saving my family is even better. I do not care for accolades from the public; some people do stupid things for 15 minutes of fame. I would rather be a hero to my family, the guy that stood guard and kept them safe. If the assailant came into range, I would drop him in a heartbeat.
Shotting my house after starting his house on fire, the things I can see, I āThinkā after securing my place, I didnāt say leave them defenseless, I would engage, hopefully using stealth. The thing that come to mind is, I carry a micro so I probably wouldnāt be real effective at any long distance. I do have a long gun readily available that would help with the distance thing but not so much help when it came to the neighbors houses.
Yes, if one is to carry EDC for self defense then Yes you better have that mental and physical ability.
Just throwing this out thereā¦could some or all of the gun shots have come from stored ammo in the house during the house fire?
With that question being asked, if he was a trained airman and had secured his family then yes he should have absolutely confronted the shooter.
Factors in my area would be if I knew his location and had a shot without putting myself and others in danger. If I heard gunshots down the road from my house with a possible house fire in progress, I would probably get outside on the opposite end from the shooter until I could get a better idea of what exactly was going on. I am not trained to run across a yard or two and engage a shooter.
I will add, if I had a clear shot I would put him down as accurately as possible. But still it is a neighborhood and folks are probably going to be running everywhere. I would have to be in this situation but good food for thought.
Yes, always mindful of stray bullets hitting innocent civilians.
Iām trying to determine if the gunman was in the middle of the street by himself just firing his gun indiscriminately. If he was, I could possibly take my chances and shoot behind cover with my AR.
I will agree that military training vs experience is a real thing.
Most in the military go to the range once, maybe twice a year and then never touch a weapon in between.
Those of us that were in actual combat units trained alot. Its called muscle memory.
Luckily, no combat experience. I wouldnāt wish that on anyone. I got out of the military 26 years ago but the "muscle memory " is still there in some aspects. Pisses my wife off alot cuz im on anal on some things, especially when it comes to self defense.
She stopped arguing when I would buy bulk ammo or guns, etc and after I pointed out certain choke points around the house and property and said how they should protect themselves in the house if something happened. She seen the light and understood.
We got our plan for a home invasion or a worst scenario where America gets invaded. Hopefully its needed butā¦
One year a guy just walks into the house with a pocketknife. He says, āgot any money?ā She jumps up and tells him the get the F out of the house. He left. She called 9-1-1 and when they showed up, he had a couple at knife point a couple houses down, and he took off. He then attempted a carjacking and the police shot him.
Regardless to say, my wife loves the home defense stuff that I do. I have trained her with her gun, and she is efficient with it too. She supports all my efforts to make the home safe. We even talk about security actions we should take in all sorts of situations. She has told me that I need a bigger safe.
My wife used to mock me when I first became a gun owner. That was almost 13 years ago. It wasnāt easy but she finally saw the benefits of being able to defend herself. I bought the LCP-Max because she wanted to be proficient in shooting.
After 29 years of marriage and I havenāt changed, sheās still more of a pacifist. A few times she has asked for a gun to be left out, maybe her spidey sense? Donāt know.
