.223 Used to Rescue Relatives Next Door, two Invaders Shot, 1 Killed

Gun Watch ^ | 12 May, 2017 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

On 9 May, 2017, a Houston family underwent a home invasion nightmare. Sometime in the early morning hours, twin 19 year old brothers woke to their parents screaming while being beat and held hostage by four armed home invaders. The stories do not say exactly what the four invaders were armed with. At least one had a pistol, because the father and the twins were "pistol whipped". The mother and 10 year old sister were held hostage.  The robbers demanded jewelry and money. From khou.com:

HOUSTON – A man came to the rescue when his relatives next door were tied up and assaulted during a home invasion in northeast Houston overnight.

Houston Police Department officers responded around 4 a.m. Tuesday to a call of a burglary in progress at a home in the 3700 block of Crandon Street.

“They had my little sister at gunpoint, so we couldn’t do anything,” said 19-year old Rene Garcia.

He and his twin brother tried to lock themselves inside their bedroom when they heard their mom and dad screaming and struggling. At least one gunman threatened to shoot a family member if Rene and his brother didn’t open their bedroom door, Garcia said.

The uncle, who lives next door, heard the screaming and came to the rescue. Some accounts say that the Uncle came across an invader beating a family member in the back yard; another says that the Uncle broke into the house and shot the invaders. The presence of three .223 steel casings in the driveway indicates shots were fired before the Uncle entered the house, if he did.

We do not have information about what model of gun the Uncle used. The pictures of the casings are indicative it was a .223 semi-auto.

Until more details are revealed, it will not be clear that a .223 semi-auto was used to rescue his family from the home invaders.

One of the reasons that instances of defensive uses of semi-auto rifles are not documented more often is that reporters are ignorant of firearm models and calibers.

Numerous reporters were on the scene. They took excellent photographs of the shell casings.

Several stories have been published about the incident. Not one mentions the caliber of casings seen in the pictures.

Crime Scene Markers of Shell Casings in the Driveway

It matters because those who want a disarmed population claim that .223 semi-auto rifles are never used for defensive purposes, or are not suitable to be used for those purposes. It is likely that the firearm associated with the casings shown above would be banned by the Maryland law at issue in the 4th Circuit Kolbe v. Hogan decision.  From reason.com:

In Kolbe, the 10-judge majority concludes that the guns and magazines covered by Maryland's ban are "dangerous and unusual" because they are "exceptionally lethal weapons of war" that are not appropriate for civilian use: "We are convinced that the banned assault weapons and large-capacity magazines are among those arms that are 'like' 'M-16 rifles'—'weapons that are most useful in military service'—which the Heller Court singled out as being beyond the Second Amendment's reach."

Heller did nothing of the sort. But that did not stop the 4th Circuit from concocting the lie.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

Link to Gun Watch

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Based on the angle of that shell casing shown in the first picture and that it looks like it’s lacquer coated - I’d say that it’s a 5.45x39 casing.

Note the taper on the case - .223/5.56 aren’t tapered.

5.45x39 is even more lethal than 5.56 based on my experience with hogs/feral dogs.

[Texas Fossil]

Lethality can come from bullet design as well.

I’ve noticed my Kurd friends in Syria have been begging the US for heavy weapons. The snipers they have are increasingly using much heavier rounds and bigger bore weapons.

One of my Syrian friends tells me that she has never seen Kurds waste ammo or shoot in the air. Guess that is something they learned in Kobani. They were very close to running out of ammo at the point where we brought in the first air support. They made every bullet count.

[NativeSon]

“Wolf” - OK in an “AK” or Mosin-Nagant not so sure about the AR platform.

[MNnice]

The 2nd Amendment SPECIFICALLY guarantees the right of the people to keep and bear arms of MILITARY utility (”weapons of war”), or the “well regulated militia” clause makes no sense.

____________________________________________________________________________
Excellent point, sir.

[Geronimo]

I’ve never used it in 5.56/.223 in my AR but have seen plenty of guys at the range going through hundreds of rounds on theirs, and their AK’s too...I have a couple of AR-9 pistols I built & they love the stuff, they get as dirty as a coal mine’s elevator shaft everytime you use it though...

[NativeSon]

I've read, that a primary reason for dirt left behind, is that the steel doesn't expand like the brass casing in the breech.

I guess that I could setup a quasi-scienific test to prove or disprove...

[hal ogen]

Good shooting, Citizen. Civilization thanks you.

[DuncanWaring]

That was one of the unwritten themes of the “Miller” decision, also.

[Afterguard]

“Based on the angle of that shell casing shown in the first picture and that it looks like it’s lacquer coated - I’d say that it’s a 5.45x39 casing”

Excellent observation! I believe you are correct.

[Scrambler Bob]

three .223 steel casings
= = =

Probably RUSSIAN!

[SargeK]

I agree and would add that it is long past time for shotguns to be relegated to a specialty weapon in law enforcement. It is unacceptable to throw 9 .32 caliber projectiles “that-a-way” when you are responsible for the impact of every one of them.

[OldMissileer]

I've read, that a primary reason for dirt left behind, is that the steel doesn't expand like the brass casing in the breech.

I bought five 1000 round batches of steel case Tula 5.56 NATO for screwing around. They worked very well except for one batch that would have numerous failures to extract.

A friend of mine who is a retired Marine armorer told me to load up every tenth round with a brass-cased round. The brass would expand properly and pull out the fouling left by the steel case rounds. I have not had a failure since.

[LouAvul]

Little known fact: break dancing originated when boys in da hood stole hubcaps off moving cars.

[LouAvul]

Houston got hammered with Katrina “refugees” out of New Orleans. I remember reading about a billboard advertisement from a gun store: “Protect yourself from Katrina refugees; buy a gun.” Or, some such.

[Big Red Badger]

Every tenth round...

Good to know,
Thanks.

[Big Red Badger]

So
You are suggesting

AK 74 ?

Agreed.

[Joe Boucher]

kinda hard to out run a .223, cause they’re fast.

[Big Red Badger]

Looks like the RUSSIANS!

[MileHi]

Heller did nothing of the sort. But that did not stop the 4th Circuit from concocting the lie.

In the fine tradition of lower court decisions that purported to cite Miller but made up their interpretation out of whole cloth.

http://www.constitution.org/2ll/schol/gun_control_dencite.htm

[Rannug]

The pictures of the casings are indicative it was a .223 semi-auto. I guess I woke up grumpy again. Pissed off is more like it tho. .222, .222mag, .223, .556, .225 Winchester, and I guess the .221 Fireball. Guess what. All these calibres are fired from bolt action rifles with the possible exception of the .221 Remington Fireball. Mine was a single shot bolt action pistol. Anyway, how can anyone tell, from a pic, which of the .22 calibres these casings are from? And also, how the hell can anyone determine from the pics that these rounds were fired from a semi auto? On top of that, where did the "author" learn to write? Rant over, for now. May all you mothers out there have a wonderful Mother's Day. Your importance is too often diminished. 🤗