USCCA FIRST LINE

 

Don’t Mess With Texas

According to the KVUE Texas ABC station, when a 73-year-old Texas homeowner went to his door to investigate a loud banging sound, a 19-year-old apparent drug user pushed through it. The attacker began to assault the homeowner with a club, eventually choking the man unconscious. The homeowner’s 65-year-old fiancee retrieved a handgun from the bedroom and pleaded with the attacker to stop. He did not. She fired a warning shot. He continued. Her second shot caught him in the head, killing him. In Review: Media reports have only a few of the facts, but here’s what we see: • Legal: Texas law, similar to the laws in many other states, allows a person to defend the life of a loved one from a deadly threat. Clubbing and choking constitutes a deadly threat. The warning shot was unnecessary and unjustified but also uncharged. The second shot was justified. • Tactical: A person is either a deadly threat or not. If you exhibit squeamishness about shooting, a hardcore felon will take the gun away from you and use it on you. Never fire a warning shot. If there isn’t time to call 911, then there isn’t time for a warning shot. • Training: While the marksmanship demonstrates some level of skill, firing the warning shot indicates this woman was not trained to use a firearm in a deadly situation. Anyone with access to the firearm (husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc.) should be trained not only in the firearm’s mechanics but also the necessity of self-defense shooting. Have you trained others in your home on firearm mechanics and self-defense tactics? Do they know where your guns are and how to access them? Let us know in the USCCA Community forums!

Forced to Shoot and Charged With Murder Click the image to watch the video on the USCCA YouTube channel! Watch Video

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Gun Owners … and Gun Carriers

I have always been interested in the studies showing the prevalence of defensive gun use in the U.S. annually. Of course, estimates vary widely, in part reflecting the difficulties in defining and measuring the term “defensive gun use.” In fact, on the high end of the scale, the findings show upwards of 6.1 million defensive gun uses every year. And on the low end, estimates are around 500,000. But all the research and studies together still give us an average of 2.5 million reported defensive gun uses in America every single year. That’s a really impressive number! And it translates to a lot of threats stopped and crises averted. These studies highlight just a fraction of the number of times Americans rely on the Second Amendment to protect themselves or their loves ones. Despite the limitations on data, these confirmed cases of defensive gun use prove a “good guy with a gun” is not just a myth or a misnomer but rather an integral part of our society. We know that not every American has a gun and not every individual who owns a firearm carries it every day. Think about that.  Currently only about 1.2 percent of the general population carry all the time. And if defensive gun use is roughly 6,849 cases per day, how much more violence and crime could potentially be stopped if more responsible citizens carried? Even if half of the gun owners chose to arm themselves with a defensive gun, could that be 5,000 more criminals thwarted daily? Or if every gun owner chose to arm himself or herself, could that be more than 15,000 lives saved every day?  Don’t let the bad guys win. If you’re a gun owner, train to be a safe and proficient gun carrier. We will definitely still work to avoid, escape, deescalate and defend — in that order. But when life is on the line, we should never be at a disadvantage on that last option.  Read more articles by Beth Alcazar at USCCA.com.

Avoid Being Mistaken for a Criminal by Nick Jacobellis Oliver F. Winchester and Winchester Rifles by Frank Jastrzembski

Ammo Debate: 9mm vs .45 ACP by Scott W. Wagner Stay Safe for Halloween by Beth Alcazar

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