Our friends in the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex are fond of telling women that owning a gun increases the danger that it will eventually be used against them. They preach that owning a firearm will only allow an abusive husband or attacker to take it away and use it against them. Try telling that to the Houston woman who used her firearm last eek to stop her husband from murdering her in front of her children
Derek Martin forcibly entered his estranged wife’s apartment where she lives with her four children. This, despite the fact that the woman had already obtained an order of protection against him. It’s almost as if a piece of paper doesn’t really provide a defense against a determined attacker.
Martin then began strangling his wife in plain sight of the children. While the oldest, an eight-year-old, started hitting Martin as hard as she could, a five-year-old retrieved Mom’s gun and handed it to her.
The woman then shot the husband in the arm, stopping the attack.
The fact that the mother kept a firearm that was accessible to her four small children — ages 8,5, 2 and 1 — is disturbing enough. And seeing their mother shoot her estranged husband is something the older two will probably be dealing with for a long time.
But far more disturbing would have been those children watching as their mother was murdered in front of them.
Martin was treated for his wound and is now being held in the local graybar hotel.
He is being charged with a felony count of assault and a felony count of violating a protective order.
We await comment from Shannon Watts and John Feinblatt on the danger that gun ownership poses to women who are being menaced by abusive partners.