Stand Your Ground … But Do It Smarter

Stand Your Ground … But Do It Smarter – Every now and again it is important to justify why you would be preparing for a home invasion, a robbery, or another event where you are going to need to use your weapon to protect your family. While I hope that this never happens to you, in my years on this earth I have drawn twice from concealed and grabbed a rifle once, all within the last decade. Unfortunately, as inflation increases, dissatisfaction with the current situation economically or politically gets worse, I foresee this being an increased occurrence.

Take this video for example:

Granted I know that this video is several years old, but you can still learn a lot from this interaction, on what was the situation, what happened and how could it have been better.

First thing to notice was it happened at night, which is indicative of a few things. First, criminals will look for an advantage of you either not being at home, or not being prepared. Just like any person who has had a fight, you don’t want a fair one.

Second was that the homeowner engaged the robber with a pistol caliber carbine. The first issue that I have with this is that his stock is wire, but from the initial display he showed that the carbine was fired not from the shoulder. I am mixed on my position on pistol carbines, but I have found shooting a carbine with no shoulder brace you get all the downfall of a pistol (no stable platform) and none of the benefits of a pistol (not wieldy).

Third he fired a warning shot. I am not a fan of this especially in housing of any kind for a few reasons. The primary one is that a warning shot still goes somewhere, if not in the bad guy, it is hitting walls, it is going through them (scary thought if you have kids), or ricochet and injure someone else. Another is now I have given the perpetrator and advantage; he might know my position or where I am at to return fire. Finally, I have now discharged a weapon which could get me into issues with the police.

To make matters worse after he fired his warning shot his firearm jammed. Meaning he had 1 chance to gain the advantage and neutralize the threat, and he screwed that up by firing a warning shot.

Another note is he had no place or capability to retain his rifle like a sling, meaning coming around a corner I could take the rifle from him, and disarming him. This is especially concerning if you need to use your hands to open a door, push off an attacker to get to your firearm, which is why a good holster with magnetic retention is a must. Finally, his weapon had no light, and this was at night, which is why I harp on having one, as I mentioned in my other blog here regarding holsters and lights.

Bottom line, good gear and training will trump most bad situations, so you don’t end up like this guy.

Also be sure to check out JM4 Tactical for your holster needs!

Author: Ian Bolser