Reader Greg Downs writes:
A Kansas City, Missouri police officer was attacked in her own home recently. “According to the documents, the officer’s daughter told police she woke up about 5 a.m. to the sound of a man pounding on the family’s door. Her mother braced the door and yelled that she was a police officer. When she opened the door, the officer told police Garcia charged her, threw her down some stairs onto a vehicle and began choking the officer.” A family member came to her rescue. The family member was able to pull the attacker away, allowing her to use her firearm to defend herself and her family. During the melee, the officer accidentally shot herself in her hand . . .
I teach firearm and home safety classes on a regular basis. One of the easiest and sometimes very effective ways of preventing attacks in your own home is simply don’t open the door. Certainly not when a stranger is pounding on it at 5:00 a.m.
Of course, the average residential exterior door will not prevent a determined attacker or attackers. That leads to the second lesson in this news report: always home carry. An attack against you can happen any time you are at home. In this case, in the wee hours of the morning.
We don’t know all the details of this incident, and the officer’s self-inflicted injury probably wasn’t preventable given the situation. She was likely using her off hand in an attempt to gain separation from the attacker and had to risk shooting her own hand to stop the attack.
Even in a defensive situation, though, you should do everything in your power to never let the muzzle point at anything you are not willing to destroy. In many jurisdictions, you can and probably will be held responsible if you injure or kill an innocent person, even if you were acting in self-defense against a third person.
Greg Downs is the owner and chief instructor for Family Firearm Safety in Overland Park, Kansas. He teaches approximately 100 firearm and home safety classes per year to a diverse audience in the Kansas City area. Greg is certified to teach NRA Basic Pistol, NRA Basic Personal Protection in the Home, as well as Kansas and Missouri Concealed Carry. He is committed to promoting safe and responsible firearms ownership.