BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA — When police arrived to a man’s apartment, they found him outside waiting, clutching a gunshot wound. He was armed but complied with police requests. Upon inspection of the premises, they discovered an alleged intruder who was also armed. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The occupant of the home was transported to a nearby hospital where he is in stable condition.
According to WVTM News 13, the occupant of the apartment told police that his apartment was broken into. There was an exchange of gunfire between the intruder and the occupant and the occupant prevailed, though he was wounded.
Birmingham police are treating this case as self-defense. No charges are pending against the occupant of the apartment.
Even though the occupant won’t be charged, he’ll still likely expect some delays associated with his defensive gun use. We wrote an article to help out our readers with figuring out those details.
We’re always glad to see the defender win against the attacker. It’s just another great example of why it’s better to be armed than to hope an intruder, robber, or attacker just decides to not use his gun against you.
With the home invasion stories, I think our main focus has always been responsible gun ownership saves lives. Intruders often times have access to stolen firearms that they use to threaten, intimidate, and even kill occupants that they’re trying to rob. Criminals aren’t all the same. It’s impossible for the occupant of an apartment to know which variety he’s getting. That’s why we don’t bet on it. Judicious use of good marksmanship, proper cover and concealment, and communication. It’s all part of the plan.
One of the major differences between living in an apartment and a home is the amount of space a person has to work with. In an apartment, often times there’s maybe a bedroom and the rest is open space. There are also likely other occupants located above, below, left, right, and sometimes front and back. That’s a tight fighting environment.
In adjoining apartments, there may be children, other people oblivious to what’s happening in your apartment. This is a great example of where frangible ammunition can come in handy. Frangible ammunition is intended to break apart after it strikes soft tissue. It’s not like full metal jacketed ammunition which is designed to punch through surfaces. This can make a difference if a round strikes drywall and wood support beams.
Granted, the bad guys entering an apartment aren’t likely to consider the well-being of anyone outside of themselves. If you decided to go frangible out of consideration for the people living around you, it would just be one more consideration that a law-abiding gun owner makes that a criminal never would.