For many supporters of the Second Amendment, it’s been easy in recent weeks to despair over the ways in which gun control advocates are successfully undermining the right to keep and bear arms. Virginia’s ban on future sales of standard-capacity magazines and so-called assault weapons is set to take effect on July 1, with state courts thus far appearing reluctant to intervene. New York and Connecticut became the latest states to pass “Glock bans,” which prohibit residents from buying one of the nation’s most widely available handgun brands.
But not everything has been doom and gloom for lawful gun owners in other parts of the United States. The last few weeks have also featured some bright spots. In West Virginia, for example, law-abiding 18-to-20-year-olds may now enjoy their right to bear arms on equal footing with all other adults after legislation passed in April to expand the state’s permitless-carry protections finally went into effect. Down in Florida, meanwhile, state Attorney General James Uthmeier joined forces with Second Amendment advocacy groups, agreeing with them that the state’s mandatory three-day waiting period on gun purchases is unconstitutional and asking a federal court to strike down the law. And the Second Circuit struck down New York’s “vampire rule” in what is almost certainly a precursor to the Supreme Court’s imminent decision in Wolford v. Lopez regarding Hawaii’s version of the rule.
All of these are victories for the right to keep and bear arms, which Americans rely on to defend themselves and others far more often than many people realize. Even the notoriously anti-gun Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged that most studies on the issue find that between 500,000 and several million defensive gun uses occur every year in the United States. An extensive 2021 national survey conducted by a Georgetown professor further substantiated this reality, concluding that Americans used their firearms defensively an average of 1.2 million times a year.
Consider the following stories of successful defensive gun use from last month:
May 1, Jackson, Miss. – During an early morning incident of domestic violence, a man shot a woman in the foot and apparently fled the scene. The suspect returned just four hours later, however, in what local officials described as an effort to “finish the job” by killing the woman and her stepfather, who owned the home. He fired multiple rounds through the home’s front door and kicked it down before the woman’s stepfather fatally shot him.
May 3, Garland, Texas: Local officials determined that a man acted in lawful self-defense when he fatally shot an illegal immigrant who tried to forcibly steal the man’s vehicle, with his family—including two children—inside. Security camera footage from a nearby business shows that the would-be carjacker approached the parked vehicle and, after a brief physical altercation with the man, took control of the driver’s seat. The man then drew his gun and fired more than ten rounds, killing the suspect. Police say that the suspect had earlier attempted to steal several cars at a nearby gas station after disabling his own vehicle in a crash that he caused.
May 6, Florence, S.C.: A legally armed resident fatally shot an intruder who’d forced his way into a home while the mother of one of his children was inside, after previously making violent threats against her and another occupant. Investigators determined that the intruder’s child also lived at the home, but that the intruder had no legal right to access the property.
May 11, Cambridge, Mass.: Police say that a Marine veteran’s armed intervention during an active shooting protected countless innocent victims and ultimately enabled a responding state trooper to end the threat. The veteran—who has a carry permit—was driving down a busy street when he saw a rifle-wielding man ahead of him shooting dozens of rounds into cars. The veteran grabbed his gun from a lockbox and engaged the gunman in a shootout. Although the veteran quickly ran out of ammunition due to the state’s magazine capacity limits, his actions drew the gunman’s attention—and gunfire—away from a state trooper who’d been forced to take cover behind his squad car. This enabled the trooper to shoot and incapacitate the gunman. The gunman had a lengthy history of criminal violence and mental health issues, and was currently on parole after shooting at Boston police officers in 2020.
May 13, Austintown, Ohio: A man with a history of problematic and criminal behavior chased down his ex-girlfriend, who was driving with her current boyfriend and two children in the vehicle. The man tried to cut off the woman’s car but lost control of his truck and crashed near a car wash, prompting the woman to pull over and check on him. The man then exited his truck, charged toward the other vehicle with a gun drawn, and chased the woman before confronting her current boyfriend, who was in the passenger seat. During the ensuing fight, the current boyfriend grabbed a gun from inside the vehicle and fatally shot his assailant in defense of himself and the children in the backseat.
May 18, Philadelphia, Penn.: An armed neighbor intervened to protect a woman and her 14-year-old daughter from a burglar who broke down the door to their apartment in the middle of the night. The woman found the man in her daughter’s bedroom holding what looked like a metal tube and yelled for help while trying to push him away. A neighbor heard the commotion and armed himself before running upstairs, where he fatally shot the burglar during a confrontation. It was the second defensive gun use by a civilian in Philadelphia that day—an hour earlier, an armed resident shot a man as he attempted to enter a house through the first-floor window.
May 20, Spirit Lake, Idaho: During a domestic dispute between a man and woman, who had a no-contact order in place against him, the man stood over the woman in a “threatening manner.” A juvenile who witnessed the altercation retrieved a firearm and told the man to leave the residence. Instead, the man “aggressively advanced” toward the boy, who fatally shot him in defense of himself and the woman.
May 26, Harleton, Tex.: Police say that a man fatally shot his older brother with a rifle in self-defense during a fight that escalated into an exchange of gunfire. The incident apparently started after the man filed a police report accusing his brother of stealing fireworks, which enraged the older sibling, who threatened the man and his daughter with a handgun. The older brother had an extensive criminal history and had allegedly threatened family members with violence in the past.
May 28, Park City, Utah: A man who’d been threatening people with scissors during a domestic dispute fled the scene before police arrived. While fleeing, he broke into an unoccupied apartment, then climbed from that apartment’s balcony to the balcony of an adjacent apartment, which he entered. A resident inside the second apartment heard his roommate’s screams, grabbed a gun, and confronted the intruder, whom he successfully held at gunpoint until police arrived.
May 31, Bartlesville, Okla.: When a man began assaulting another person with a pair of scissors at a shopping center, an armed bystander intervened, shooting and wounding the assailant.
As these incidents of armed self-defense illustrate, the Second Amendment is a vital component of public safety that enables innocent victims to protect themselves and others from criminals, even if many gun control advocates wish to pretend otherwise.
The legal and political battles to safeguard this fundamental right are ongoing, and at times, the wars being waged against the Second Amendment seem endless. Yet, progress is being made and there are plenty of reasons to continue insisting on our right to keep and bear arms—at the very least, because ordinary Americans keep relying on it.