AR-15 Effective in Defending against Multiple Home Invaders

Young Woman Carrying AR15 style Rifle in Yuma Arizona

On Sunday morning, April 15, 2018 at about 4 a.m. in Glen St. Mary, Florida, a group of seven masked home invaders barged into a mobile home located on County Road 125. A shot was fired by one invader. Two of the four occupants of the home responded with armed force.

One of the residents had an AR15 style rifle. The person with the AR15 said they fired over 30 rounds while repelling the invaders. One invader was killed and others wounded. No resident was injured. As soon as the gunfight stopped, the residents called 911.

Baker County deputies immediately responded, stopped a car fleeing the scene at a high rate of speed, arrested five people, and took a 16 year old juvenile to the hospital. None of the four residents of the mobile home were arrested. From news4jax.com:

GLEN ST. MARY, Fla - Deputies arrested five people, two of them teens, after a home invasion Sunday in Glen St. Mary escalated into a deadly shootout, according to the Baker County Sheriff's Office.

The Sheriff's Office said the five were among seven masked individuals armed with guns who barged into a mobile home on County Road 125 about 4 a.m. to confront four people staying there over a feud.

I have long maintained the AR15 or other Modern Sporting Rifles are excellent home defense firearms. The reasons are many, and illustrated with this case. The rifles are light, easy to use, and reliable. The cartridges used are adequate for home defense. There are several ammunition choices available to limit potential over-penetration. The magazine capacity is especially valuable when confronting several attackers. The intimidation value of an identifiable platform such as the AR15 can help prevent a gunfight, or help to stop one quickly.

In a rural setting, such as this isolated house along a county highway, over penetration is not much of a worry.

Investigators found a mask with a bullet hole in it and considerable blood at the scene. Over 30 shots were fired by the defenders in the conflict. Only one of the shots appears to have resulted in a fatality. We  know at least one shot was fired by the intruders, which did not hit any of the residents.

People who obtain their information from television dramas often think only one shot is needed per attacker. The reality is many shots miss, some wound, and few are fatal. It is the reason that people who study combat and self-defense do not put a limit on the number of shots that may be necessary. From news4jax.com:

The victims told deputies they acted in self-defense when they turned their guns on the intruders, with one of them estimating he fired over 30 rounds from an AR-15 before the threat was over.

Afterward, the victims retreated to another part of the home before they dialed 911, according to the report. None of them was hurt during the shooting.

The same cannot be said for the intruders, several of whom were inside a vehicle deputies intercepted as it sped away from the mobile home off County Road 125.

One of them, Corey Lauramore, died of gunshot wounds to the head. An unidentified 16-year-old remains hospitalized, and a third suspect, William Lauramore, was treated and released to police.

The AR15 type rifle is the most popular type of rifle in the United States. They are seldom used in crime, because rifles, in general, are seldom used in crime. The vast majority of homicides are committed with handguns, because handguns are much easier to conceal and transport.

Recent use of AR15 type rifles in mass murder is cited as a reason to ban them. But AR15 rifles were commonly available to the public since 1965. AR-15 rifles were not used in a mass murder until 2007, and that was a police issued rifle.

What happened to increase the use of AR15 rifles in mass murder? Very likely it was the media coverage in the United States, where mass media create incentives for socially marginal individuals to achieve celebrity status by becoming a mass murderer. Since 2012, much media focus has been on the AR15, as many in the media want to see it banned.  From politifact.com:

Among other factors also worth considering is media coverage of mass shooters, which Adam Lankford, a criminology professor at the University of Alabama, said rewards perpetrators with fame and can lead to copycat effects.

"Although firearms availability is the primary reason why the United States has more public mass shooters than other countries, media coverage of perpetrators may largely explain why the United States has seen more public mass shooters and deadlier incidents over time," Lankford said.

The AR15 is an excellent choice for home defense. In areas with a high population density, consideration should be given to ammunition choices that limit over-penetration. 

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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