Armed Church Heroes Are Important Reminders of How Often Defensive Gun Use Occurs

Just minutes into a special Vacation Bible School Sunday service at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, on June 22, parishioners found their morning worship interrupted by the terrible crack of gunshots outside.

A man clad in a tactical vest and carrying numerous firearms had driven erratically onto the premises of the church, apparently intent on killing as many worshippers as he could that morning.

Fortunately for the nearly 150 people inside—including numerous young children—some of the gunshots they heard were, in fact, the sounds of two armed church members returning fire and killing the gunman before he could enter the sanctuary.  

The men who heroically defended their fellow worshippers are part of CrossPointe’s safety team, which they and other members founded about a decade ago in response to acts of violence committed in places of worship around the United States.

They’re ordinary civilians who took it upon themselves to train together regularly to respond to a variety of potential safety issues, including precisely these types of active-threat scenarios.

The actions of these men were certainly extraordinary, and the national headlines dedicated to their valor were deserved. But, at the same time, their lifesaving exercise of the right to keep and bear arms was hardly unique.

Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to the most recent report on the subject by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year.

For that reason, The Daily Signal publishes a monthly article compiling and highlighting some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read accounts from previous months and years here.)

The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in January. You may explore more by using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database. 

• June 2, Marietta, Ga.: A 66-year-old good Samaritan single-handedly thwarted two carjackings with back-to-back heroic actions over the span of just a few minutes. The good Samaritan first ran across five lanes of traffic to intervene after he saw a man attack a woman in an attempt to get her car keys at a gas station. The suspect ran away once confronted, but then immediately attempted to carjack another vehicle that was stopped at a red light in a nearby intersection. The good Samaritan followed the suspect to the second car, which contained two adults and a 2-year-old child. This time, the good Samaritan drew his weapon and held the suspect at gunpoint until police arrived.

• June 4, Foster Township, Penn.: The Pennsylvania Game Authority determined that a homeowner was justified in fatally shooting a 200-pound black bear that made its way into a residential area and acted aggressively toward residents. The homeowner saw the bear in his backyard and scared it off before reporting a “nuisance bear” to local officials. The bear returned about 20 minutes later, however, and this time refused to flee from similar efforts to scare it off. Instead, it came within 30 feet of the family’s back porch while standing on its back legs, growling, and snapping its jaws. Out of fear for his family and other residents, the homeowner shot the bear with a rifle.
• June 8, Rockford, Ill.: A man and a woman approached a female victim in her driveway and began fighting with her. When the female victim fled into her home, her assailants chased after her and forced their way inside before dragging a male victim back out of the house and assaulting him. The male victim was able to stop the attack by pulling out his firearm. Both assailants now face a slew of criminal charges, including battery, criminal trespass, and home invasion.
• June 10, Seabrook, Texas: A man’s ex-wife showed up at his home hoping to restore their relationship. Things quickly took a violent turn after man rebuffed his ex-wife’s advances. She forced her way into the house, held the man at gunpoint, and coerced him into calling his current girlfriend over for drinks so that she could kill them both in a planned murder-suicide. Fortunately, the man was able to distract his ex-wife just long enough to retrieve his firearm. The two exchanged gunfire until the ex-wife sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen and fled the scene in a car. Police later found and arrested her, and she is now charged with multiple felonies, including aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.  
• June 12, Booneville, Miss.: An armed homeowner confronted an intruder who broke into his home, successfully holding the suspect at gunpoint until police arrived. The suspect has been charged with home invasion and possession of a controlled substance.
• June 15, Houston, Texas: A security camera captured the footage of an armed robber who, while pretending to be a police officer, accosted a liquor store owner at gunpoint as he took out the store’s trash, ordering the owner to lay facedown on the pavement and pointing the gun at his head. The store owner’s wife saw the altercation, retrieved her firearm, and walked outside to confront the robber. When he saw the man’s armed wife, the robber began scrambling away. The owner was able to get up onto his feet and draw his weapon, firing at the robber and striking him at least once before he crawled his way into a getaway vehicle. Police apprehended the suspect at the hospital and commended the couple’s actions.  
• June 18, Simi Valley, Calif.: Police say that a woman’s ex-boyfriend armed himself with a knife and broke into the woman’s home, where she lived with her husband and two children. The woman’s husband confronted the knife-wielding intruder, then fatally shot him during the ensuing altercation. Local officials revealed that the ex-boyfriend had previously caused problems at the married couple’s home and at one point had a temporary restraining order issued against him.  
• June 21, Prichard, Ala.: Less than two weeks after a suspect wearing a hoodie, mask, and orange gloves successfully robbed a gas station at gunpoint, an armed 17-year-old clad in the same attire entered the store and attempted to rob it again. This time, however, the gas station’s manager was also armed and fatally shot the teen robber.  
• June 23, Orlando, Fla.: Police say that a knife-wielding man violently assaulted his girlfriend while they sat in his car in a mall parking lot. The injured woman was able to escape the car and ran toward the mall while screaming, but the man grabbed and punched her. An armed bystander intervened on the woman’s behalf, drawing his concealed handgun on her assailant and warning him to “back off.” The assailant complied and fled the scene but was apprehended by police in another county. The woman was treated for multiple stab and slash wounds across her back, chest, shoulders, and legs.    
• June 28, Atlanta, Ga.: During a park picnic event hosted by a local chapter of a historically black fraternity, a masked man—who was not an invited attendee—approached some of the picnickers and started an argument. Members of the fraternity tried to de-escalate the situation, but the masked man drew a gun and opened fire. The gunman fatally shot one person and injured two others before multiple fraternity members with concealed-carry permits returned fire, killing the gunman and stopping further bloodshed. Court records indicate that the gunman was on probation until 2031 for committing aggravated assault with a firearm during a similar altercation in 2023.
• June 30, Elkhorn, Ky.: A homeowner shot and wounded a neighbor who came inside the house uninvited with a firearm and threatened to kill the homeowner and his family multiple times. Police arrested the neighbor after an hourslong standoff in an alley behind the victims’ house. He has been charged with attempted murder, terroristic threatening, and public intoxication, among other offenses.

These examples underscore not only the importance of the right to keep and bear arms, but the often-overlooked reality of just how common defensive gun use is in American society.

Every day, ordinary Americans in extraordinary circumstances rely on the Second Amendment to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their communities from criminal violence. In so doing, they demonstrate time and again the incalculable value of an armed defense.

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