It can be hard to quantify defensive gun uses. Sure, we hear about bad guys getting shot every day, but it’s rare these days for a story to be press-worthy if no shots are actually fired. Bruce Krafft does an excellent job cataloging the meager data available for no-shots-fired DGUs, and I can only point to the paucity of news reports in my daily searches that devote any column inches to stories with happy endings. Imagine my surprise when this gem from my hometown showed up…
Situational awareness paid off for a 23-year-old Akron, Ohio man, who, after pulling into a parking space at a local business, noticed two guys sitting in the adjacent car. The CCW holder watched them don ski masks, get out and approach him, pulling a gun as they did. This constitutes a grave danger to one’s life, and our CGU victim acted accordingly, drawing his weapon on the approaching threat. You can guess what happened next; the idiots ran away, as they nearly always do.
If there’s a handbook for aspiring thugs, I’m sure it mentions somewhere that you shouldn’t put on your mask while the victim’s watching you. Another tip: don’t go breaking into cars where people go to shoot guns. You wouldn’t think this is something that needs to be said, but apparently a guy in Houston didn’t think that through, trying to break into cars in a shooting-range parking lot, and getting perforated in the process.
Speaking of Houston, there are enough DGU incidents being reported to warrant a special section in the local news. Two more inicidents last week happened in Space City, where a salvage yard owner confronted two men stealing “expensive car parts” and fired several shots, hitting one of the thieves. Across town, an auto shop owner, tired of constant problems with the local scum, decided that if the crooks who just tried to jack his cash box were stupid enough to drive past the business again a few minutes later, then they deserved the several rounds sent in their direction.
A trend I’m noticing in many DGU incidents involves seniors – the armed ones, anyway. Some of these guys fought in jungles, and they don’t give a crap about your little hoodlum problems. Oh, and Sonny, if you come in a Vet’s home uninvited, he will shoot you dead. Another bad guy is horizontal after a brutal incident in Rapid City, South Dakota, where a 69-year-old man was awakened by the beating the home invader was giving him. Thomas Wilson, a Vietnam Veteran, put several rounds into his attacker, killing him instantly. The article notes Mr. Wilson’s truck has a window sticker that reads, “There’s nothing here worth your life.”
In Lake Elsinore, California, A 72-year-old man shot and killed an intruder who broke into his home at five in the morning. The unnamed, 51-year-old new morgue resident cut the power to Jerry Duncan’s home, then entered by pushing a window A/C into the house. Duncan, hearing the commotion, came down stairs, pistol in hand. He waited, standing quietly in the dark, assessing the situation. A man entered through the window and did not head Duncan’s repeated warnings. Duncan fired a single shot, and police found the guy about fifteen feet from the house.
There’s one other interesting stat I’ve noticed. Old people always seem to shoot to kill.
“There’s one other interesting stat I’ve noticed. Old people always seem to shoot to kill.”
Or, some of you old folks are a better shot than us younger guys/gals. Hey, experience counts for something!
g:you’re right. The day after 911, one of our circuit judges (ex-navy & reserves) said that instead of us “youngsters”, they ought to send “old guys(Vietnam vets) like me”. We’re a lot meaner than you kids!”
Us old farts don’t heal as well as we once did. We take no chances on getting injured just to spare wear and tear on the bad guys.
And this part is likely to raise a few hackles, but us old guys came of age before the pussification of the American male had really taken hold. The life experiences and the mindset really does give us an advantage against the “Y”ner generation. YMMV.
Now now, no need to generalize. I could say, if you’re a baby boomer, that you were part of a generation of spoiled brats who ruined everything for mine and made us all miserable with your high divorce rates, questionable parenting skills, and support of treacherous politicians that sold the country down the river. But I won’t, because painting with such a broad brush doesn’t do anyone any good.
We’re all on this rock together and I don’t think ageism is wrong-headed and counterproductive.
Also, your grandparents’ generation probably thought you were all a bunch of draft-dodging no good hippies with your sex, Satanic rock n’ roll, and bikinis anyway. And theirs probably thought showing a glimpse of stocking was akin to being a whore and dancing was undoubtedly of the devil.
We were spoiled. Good thing over 50,000 of us died in Vietnam, or we would have really made your life miserable.
I think ageism and is wrong-headed and counterproductive.*
Oops.
Good DGU weekly!
Picking a fight with an old man is really poor planning. Old men don’t have the patience or physical prowess to get into a fight any more, so they just call the whole thing off by killing their attackers.
Yay for the old dudes! As a member of that particular demographic, I encourage my fellow golden-agers to take arms against a sea of troubles. It seems like gray hair is like a flag that screams “rob me” to the goblins out there. Well, jackals, maybe we can’t fight the way we could back in the day, but we can still shoot straight. And we will.
@Jwm and Ralph,
I can dig it! I hope to some day be a disgruntled and accurate old fart who doesn’t much care about the villainous scum invading my house or his lengthy series of unfortunate life decisions. I’m only 36, but I’m doing my best to be as curmudgeonly as possible. Got any tips?
Hitch your pants up to your arm pits and practice yelling “Get off my lawn”.
But on a serious note. I’ve got white in my beard and could pass for Santa. A male in his twenties to thirties that would start hostilities with me is a predator. And since I want to be around at xmas to hold my grandkids on my lap, that fvcker has got to go.
I go to the gym reguler but I’m not going to delude myself into thinking I could go 10 rounds with a young, probably drug addled predator.
So if he comes at me he’s accepted that it’s his day to die. He may not understand that at the start but I’ll give him a clue as the event unfolds.
Bottom line, don’t fvck with the old guys, we’ve been there and done that.
I reminded of that good ole country song …
“I’m not as good as I once was …
But I’m as good once (or fifteen times if have my Glock .45) as I ever was”
I live near that range. Haven’t shot there because it’s a bad neighborhood and I was concerned that my truck might get broken into.
Don’t you think there are times when lawful gun owners pull their gun prematurely or unnecessarily. The object of their interest splits, and they call it a DGU.
You seem to pretend that shit like that never happens or only happens rarely. I don’t think that’s the case at all.
Feel free to compile the news stories yourself and make us aware of them mikey#s. Hell, if you’re right, I bet RF would even post it up for ya.
FLAME DELETED
WARNING: Persistent flamers will be permanently banned.
Mike, I’m sure it happens all the time. But so what? If the person who was exposed to the gun intended harm, then two lives have been saved and no physical damage done. If the gun owner misjudged the situation, then perhaps the individual may have been frightened, but still physically unharmed. The two possible outcomes are that you prevented physical injury or frightened someone. Is it not better to err on the side of caution?
Perhaps you should ask Dog Gone if she’s ever pulled her gun prematurely or unnecessarily, since you think it happens so often.
Grandpa and/or Grandma with F your sheet up. Assholes take notice.
Dude went to a gun range to break into cars. If anyone on earth deserved shooting…
/sarc on
Now, now, he was probably a product of a bad school, and therefore can’t read. He probably thought the pictures of guns meant it was a “designated victim enclosure” (AKA a gun free zone). You should feel sorry for him and give him your money so he can continue with his chosen lifestyle. It would be wrong to attempt to impose your values on him by force.
/sarc off
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