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Author Topic: 13 y.o. kid does good  (Read 8536 times)

Offline animal

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13 y.o. kid does good
« on: September 21, 2023, 01:18:32 pm »
Overall, a good news story. Analyzing it, the mom needed more training or counseling, but the kid took up the slack well enough.
Of course, the bad guy is claiming "he went to the wrong house" ... BS. Yeah, right ; but not in the way he claims.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1achnBbTUVU

This one got my attention because the kid beat me by a year. The first time I held a guy at gunpoint for the police, I was 14. My case was different and I didn't have to shoot; but I would have been legally justified as far as anyone else could tell, and there were plenty of witnesses to the event. I wouldn't have missed, and he wouldn't have lived.
In this case, most people are breathing a sigh of relief that the meth head didn't die, if only to spare the kid from knowing he had killed someone. Maybe that's a good thing. At least for now it seems to be.
You never know what the future holds though. In my case, I was proud that I had stopped a crime against a woman while using the least amount of force, and apprehending the offender. A few years later, I was humbled by life unfolding, so to speak. After my bad guy got out of prison, he raped and killed a woman and did other bad things. So for a few years, I wondered how much of her blood was on my hands for not taking the shot when I could.

All we can do is our best under the circumstances at hand, but I do hope the kid improves his marksmanship.
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Offline Ben Framed

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Re: 13 y.o. kid does good
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2023, 03:47:23 pm »
NFL QB Chad Kelly placed himself in a situation a few years ago that could have easily landed him in the morgue.


https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/colts-qb-chad-kelly-hit-with-nfl-suspension-over-bizarre-home-invasion-incident-in-2018/

Offline animal

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Re: 13 y.o. kid does good
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2023, 05:17:12 pm »
He walked in as opposed to breaking in and apparently he was obnoxious but not threatening.. stupid drunk category.

I was in that category one night banging on a door about 3:00 am or so. I had been invited over for an all night gaming session but it had gotten canceled and my buddy wasn't even home. His roommate was and we didn't know each other.

So, when roommate answered the door, the business of a .44 was pointed directly at me and all he said was "what do you want?". I told him. He said "Paul isn't here". I said I was sorry that I woke him and staggered off.
Oddly enough, I didn't feel threatened at all (I could tell he knew how to handle a gun and it was perfectly logical for him to have it pointed at me at the time. My main thought was "If I don't give him a reason to fire, he will not. Therefore, I am safe.")

He ended up one of my closest friends and shooting buddys for many years.  :cheesy:

You can almost smell someone's training level sometimes. A couple of days after the incident, found out he had been a sniper in the Marine Corps and an avid pistol competition shooter.
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Offline Ben Framed

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Re: 13 y.o. kid does good
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2023, 02:38:07 pm »
He walked in as opposed to breaking in and apparently he was obnoxious but not threatening.. stupid drunk category.

I was in that category one night banging on a door about 3:00 am or so. I had been invited over for an all night gaming session but it had gotten canceled and my buddy wasn't even home. His roommate was and we didn't know each other.

So, when roommate answered the door, the business of a .44 was pointed directly at me and all he said was "what do you want?". I told him. He said "Paul isn't here". I said I was sorry that I woke him and staggered off.
Oddly enough, I didn't feel threatened at all (I could tell he knew how to handle a gun and it was perfectly logical for him to have it pointed at me at the time. My main thought was "If I don't give him a reason to fire, he will not. Therefore, I am safe.")

He ended up one of my closest friends and shooting buddys for many years.  :cheesy:

You can almost smell someone's training level sometimes. A couple of days after the incident, found out he had been a sniper in the Marine Corps and an avid pistol competition shooter.


That's true. The intruder in your posted report went as far as to break a window after he had been banging on the door and told to leave. Didn't sound like a friendly friend to whom he said he was seeking. A bad situation.

Breaking in, or simply entering a dwelling uninvited can lead to tragedy.  Just as unarming law abiding citizens leaving them helpless to defend themselves and their families can lead to tragedy .  Thankfully we have the Second Amendment.







 
« Last Edit: September 22, 2023, 03:11:10 pm by Ben Framed »

Offline animal

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Re: 13 y.o. kid does good
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2023, 05:10:00 pm »
If they break in while you're gone, they almost always just want your stuff... sucks, but not that big a deal.
If they break in when it's obvious you're there, they are almost always there to do terrible things to you.

My great aunt didn't want a gun because she knew nothing about them. She refused multiple offers from myself and others to teach her and/or give her a gun. I had been wearing her down, trying to get her to go shooting, etc. In one conversation she said something about maybe with an instructor. (she had a bit of a fixation with certifications, degrees etc. .. years of practical experience didn't carry any weight for some reason)
Anyway, in 1990 a guy broke in the back door of her house. He raped her and beat her to death with a 4-D cell flashlight that she kept on her night table.
I got certified as an instructor in firearm safety, pistol, and personal protection. Specialized in making little old ladies deadly for awhile. (also did "emergency" off-the-books crash courses for people that had been threatened) Got tired paying the yearly fee to keep certifications, but still do the courses for people when needed. I used to teach the official course to make it legit on paper, but with my own practical addendum based largely on Cooper and a sprinkling of others. Nowadays, I hear the CERT courses are almost as practical as what I taught. At least 3 women had to use what I taught. All turned out good enough.

IMO, the hardest and most critical thing to teach (especially to women) is depersonalizing the target. Good people hesitate when faced with the prospect of harming another person. Bad guys don't have that handicap.
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Offline Ben Framed

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Re: 13 y.o. kid does good
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2023, 09:14:38 pm »
I am sorry to hear the sad fate of your Aunt, animal. Keep up the good work of teaching others self defense.

Offline animal

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Re: 13 y.o. kid does good
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2023, 03:28:14 pm »
Well, I have to confess that I haven't trained anyone in quite awhile; not that I wouldn't if needed. The last was a "crash course" about 3 years ago. Those are a bit intense and thankfully rare anyway. For the rest, I try to pass people off on instructors with current certifications. I'm sure they're more qualified than I am anyway. Plus, my trusted helpers have died off or acquired medical problems that interfere with performance (ought to include myself in the latter because of a rotator cuff that I haven't had time to get fixed).
I'm so out of the loop that I made a mistake in the above post about "CERT".
For one thing, it's S.E.R.T. (Specialized Emergency Response Training). For another, it's not a course but a semi-local company that certifies instructors, among other things. Two of their courses are for CCW and Enhanced CCW, and are mainly to meet State requirements for getting permits to carry. They have other courses as well with some (most?) are for law enforcement. For some reason, I was under the impression that it was CERT, as in getting certified to carry.
The only contact I've had with S.E.R.T. is talking to instructors certified to teach through them, observing some of their gun handling skills, and helping them build a few goodies for the range. It's easy to tell they are extremely competent. Mostly, the conversations have been about tactics, practical range exercises, and that sort of thing. I'm pretty sure they view me as a dinosaur since I'm a Jeff Cooper based guy, though they have offered to have me sit in on courses and maybe help out.
Anyway, after talking to one of the guys yesterday and getting set straight, I might have the wrong impression of the comprehensiveness of their CCW course. (Some of the things we discussed in the past might be part of other courses). I might have to sit in on a couple of courses out of curiosity, if nothing else.
As far as being sorry to hear of my great aunt, the way I see it now, the story of her last day is just a small part of being sorry that the world is the way it is sometimes.
What I posted was a heavily abbreviated and sanitized version of events, but that was only one day of an 80 year life that was well lived and valuable.
Her death was a result of choices she made and a bad roll of the dice, so to speak. There's no way to know if having a gun would have saved her, but her odds of survival would have been better, and better still with training. You can't avoid the dice rolls, but you can weight them in your favor.
Speaking of the manner of her death finds value in it. It woke up many little old ladies to the fact that sexual attractiveness has very little to do with rape. It shocked me that so many were under that false impression (and it's still far more common than most people think). Also, it made them more conscious of things they could do to to "weight the dice". Many were disabused of other false notions of being well protected.
One lady even said "she should have had deadbolts", and I'll never forget seeing the color drain from her face when I told her that she had deadbolts. Some changed their habits, and there's also value in that.
I guess you might take this as "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade"?
and grinding the rinds into the eyes of your enemy can be a bonus..... just sayin
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Online Terri Yaki

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Re: 13 y.o. kid does good
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2023, 07:44:22 pm »
I'm 65 and have been shooting since I was about 12. Started with small stuff like 20ga shotgun, .32 pistols, etc but I just recently went for my first formal class. NRA, introduction to pistol. I already knew most of what the class offered but didn't feel like my accuracy was as good as it should be. He helped with that a little by adjusting my grip. The class is also mandatory before taking any more advanced classes so I took it. As a yute with a pellet gun, I had a lot of practice and have always been a decent shot, I just want my group to tighten up. My wife is clueless on shooting and I've been trying to get her to take this same course, with no luck so far. However, we had two prison escapes here recently and she's starting to warm up to the idea. The one guy was a pretty high profile escape and I wouldn't be surprised if you had all her of it. He was on the lam for two weeks, less than ten miles from us. I can honestly say that I was not overly concerned about it but many others around me didn't share that sentiment. Our local gun shop had a pretty good couple of weeks.

PA is pretty good as far as our laws go but there is an active movement to change that. PA is a 'shall issue' state, so unless you are prohibited by law, a license to carry firearms (LTCF) is issued. However, most hoodlums that they catch with illegal firearms get their cases plead down and that charge is dropped. I am in the suburbs of Philadelphia and crime down there is out of hand and getting worse.

Offline animal

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Re: 13 y.o. kid does good
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2023, 05:10:01 pm »
Sometimes making it fun can get the wife(or kids) interested. A .22 is ideal: low noise, no recoil, etc. Reactive targets: balloons, water balloons, aluminum cans, etc.
The book (I assume you got) with your pistol course has sight alignment, etc covered and you can show her all that kind of stuff that was covered in the course. The most important part is the safety part.
Personally, I prefer the way Cooper put it safety wise. Different personalities prefer different ways of putting it, but the end result is what matters.

https://thefiringline.com/library/safetyrules.html

Lots of encouragement for the newbie, and "soft" correction of any mistakes. Mention you care about them and want them to be able to protect themselves if you're not around. If they enjoy it and enjoy doing it with you, all else is downhill.

My wife started out with a Ruger 10-22 rifle and next a Ruger Mk-II target pistol. My shooting buddy(guy mentioned that had a pistol pointed at me) did some of the coaching and I did some. Only one can correct a mistake each time one is made, both can compliment or explain things.
Within a year her carry gun was a .44 spl. Bulldog. She also likes a .45 govt. model. She's 5' 1" and has very small hands.

For you, a shooting buddy might help. Once both know what they should be doing from the course, you can watch each other and give feedback to the other on whether or not you're actually doing it. Plus "sneaky" tests like loading a blank to see if you're anticipating recoil and stuff like that.

Also, always squeeze (never pull) the trigger and let the exact moment of each shot be a surprise.

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