.223 Used to Rescue Relatives Next Door, two Invaders Shot, 1 Killed

On 9 May, 2017, a Houston family underwent a home invasion nightmare. Sometime in the early morning hours, twin 19 year old brothers woke to their parents screaming while being beat and held hostage by four armed home invaders. The stories do not say exactly what the four invaders were armed with. At least one had a pistol, because the father and the twins were "pistol whipped". The mother and 10 year old sister were held hostage.  The robbers demanded jewelry and money. From khou.com:

HOUSTON – A man came to the rescue when his relatives next door were tied up and assaulted during a home invasion in northeast Houston overnight.

Houston Police Department officers responded around 4 a.m. Tuesday to a call of a burglary in progress at a home in the 3700 block of Crandon Street.

“They had my little sister at gunpoint, so we couldn’t do anything,” said 19-year old Rene Garcia.

He and his twin brother tried to lock themselves inside their bedroom when they heard their mom and dad screaming and struggling. At least one gunman threatened to shoot a family member if Rene and his brother didn’t open their bedroom door, Garcia said.

The uncle, who lives next door, heard the screaming and came to the rescue. Some accounts say that the Uncle came across an invader beating a family member in the back yard; another says that the Uncle broke into the house and shot the invaders. The presence of three .223 steel casings in the driveway indicates shots were fired before the Uncle entered the house, if he did.

We do not have information about what model of gun the Uncle used. The pictures of the casings are indicative it was a .223 semi-auto.

Until more details are revealed, it will not be clear that a .223 semi-auto was used to rescue his family from the home invaders.

One of the reasons that instances of defensive uses of semi-auto rifles are not documented more often is that reporters are ignorant of firearm models and calibers.

Numerous reporters were on the scene. They took excellent photographs of the shell casings.

Several stories have been published about the incident. Not one mentions the caliber of casings seen in the pictures.

Crime Scene Markers of Shell Casings in the Driveway

It matters because those who want a disarmed population claim that .223 semi-auto rifles are never used for defensive purposes, or are not suitable to be used for those purposes. It is likely that the firearm associated with the casings shown above would be banned by the Maryland law at issue in the 4th Circuit Kolbe v. Hogan decision.  From reason.com:

In Kolbe, the 10-judge majority concludes that the guns and magazines covered by Maryland's ban are "dangerous and unusual" because they are "exceptionally lethal weapons of war" that are not appropriate for civilian use: "We are convinced that the banned assault weapons and large-capacity magazines are among those arms that are 'like' 'M-16 rifles'—'weapons that are most useful in military service'—which the Heller Court singled out as being beyond the Second Amendment's reach."

Heller did nothing of the sort. But that did not stop the 4th Circuit from concocting the lie.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

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