Home Invasion/Robbery in Philly

[FatherXmas]

The male store owner was legally carrying a gun, but against an army of seven, that was of no help.

I have to politely disagree with that statement and agree with mbt2001.

I can't speak from any angle of expertise, but it seems to me that as soon as an armed person defends himself or herself by opening fire on an attacker, all other attackers would flee. Otherwise, all attackers would go down with the first one (this depends on the magazine capacity of the person's firearm and his or her individual situation, of course).

 

[Pilot]

What I meant was that he did not use the firearm prudently when he should have. I believe it could have helped him immensely. Poor choice of words on my part. Thanks all for pointing that out.

I think situational awareness is key in any of these scenarios.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Well those of you who think you can throw that casual day/fight switch as fast as necessary to prevail in that video are better than I am.

 

[Hacker15E]

People rarely know how they will actually react in a real world life-or-death situation.

In my experience, the folks who talk tough, or think they have it all licked, are the ones who usually freeze in fear and can't dig out of their gut what they've been trained to do or practiced to do in those situations. Even some of the quiet professional types who were serious trainers couldn't make it happen.

 

[middleground]

Someone posted about people focusing on the opening of a firearm pointed at them.

I have to agree with this.

In my only (hopefully never again) experiance with a gun being pointed at me, it was during a street robbery.

The handgun was presented in the first seconds, and the barrel looked as wide as a man hole cover.

I'm not proud to say it, but I did freeze up, and my brain took several seconds to "get back on track" or at least recognize that this was really happening, and not a TV show.

I know there are a lot of experianced people on this site, but for those of you who have never stared down the barrel of a gun it might not work the way you think.

 

[JustinJ]

In the vast majority of accounts i've read of people using guns for self defense the attacker(s) flee. However, those accounts almost always have at most three attackers and often just one. It is certainly possible that a group of robbers that large would be much more emboldened against gun fire than a more common number. Its an interesting account but as a learning tool the method of attack was a direct result of the victim's unique situation. Those of us "fortunate" enough to not usually have such large sums of money or valuables on hand are extremely unlikely to be accosted in such a manner.

 

[Matthew Courtney]

To echo what Fred wrote, there is a huge amount of flawed strategy in the way his parking area/home/routine are laid out. Small things like backing in and using mirrors to see awareness "blindspots" could have afforded a few more moments to react during the beginning of the attack.

 

[loneviking]

Don't be so sure they would run if you shoot one or two. Quite a few gangs have guys with military training and some are combat vets. You might get lucky or you might not.

Another thing to consider is how there seem to be more and more attacks by multiple bad guys. Its why I have a high cap 9mm with 18 in the gun and 20 in reserve.

Thanks for posting the vid as its a sobering reminder of how fast things can go downhill.