Armed Citizens Highlight the Critical Importance of Second Amendment

As 2024 drew to a close, examples abounded of ordinary Americans whose Second Amendment rights proved to be the ultimate defense against criminals.

While the facts of these defensive gun uses were different, none of these encounters is necessarily “unique.” In fact, reliance on armed self-defense is almost routine.

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 this reason, The Daily Signal publishes a monthly article 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 past months and years here.)

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

• Dec. 2, Wildwood, Missouri: Police say that a father of two held an intruder at gunpoint after discovering the stranger hiding under the covers of his 11-year-old son’s bed. This was the third in a series of escalating trespassing incidents involving the suspect and the family over the past year.
• Dec. 4, Columbus, Ohio: During a domestic violence incident, a woman fatally shot a man who she said threatened her while her child was present in the home. The man had a history of domestic violence and had served a prison sentence for raping a 12-year-old girl. Court records indicate the man was in a custody dispute with a woman at the time of his death, but it’s not clear whether this was the same woman who shot him.  
• Dec. 6, Henderson, Nevada: Two drivers pulled into a shopping center parking lot after one driver suspected the other might have hit his vehicle. When both drivers exited their cars, according to police, one of them brandished a firearm, prompting the second man to draw his own gun and fatally shoot the threatening driver in self-defense. The armed victim wasn’t injured.
• Dec. 8, West Chester, Ohio: A resident fatally shot an armed intruder who he says broke into his second-floor condominium through the balcony. According to other residents in the condo complex, the incident occurred after several hours of “yelling and noises” from the unit above the armed victim. However, police have not confirmed whether the two incidents were connected.
• Dec. 13, Greenfield, Indiana: Police say that an employee of an Amazon warehouse fatally shot a coworker in self-defense during a confrontation in which the coworker made “aggressive remarks” and “threatened to cause physical harm” to the victim. Witnesses reported that the armed victim attempted to de-escalate the situation by leaving the building and waiting for a ride in the parking lot, but his assailant followed him and was “closing in” on him “in an aggressive manner.”
• Dec. 14, La Luz, New Mexico: A man began banging on the door of a home occupied by a couple and their three children before forcing his way inside. According to police, he ignored multiple demands by the homeowner—who didn’t know the man—to leave and continued walking further into the house toward the children’s bedrooms. At one point, the man “attempted to strike” the homeowner, who fatally shot him with a handgun. Fortunately, neither the homeowner, his wife, nor his children were injured, and the children didn’t witness the shooting, as they were asleep.
• Dec. 19, Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania: Two would-be carjackers who tried to steal a victim’s car at gunpoint had the tables turned on them when the victim turned out to be armed, as well. The driver shot at the suspects, one of whom was wounded and the other of whom fled but was arrested by police after a brief foot chase, the police report shows. This second suspect—a juvenile with multiple warrants for drug and weapons offenses—had removed his court-ordered ankle monitor and was found in possession of a stolen and illegally modified handgun.
• Dec. 24, Clarksville, Tennessee: On Christmas Eve, an argument broke out in a Walmart between a 19-year-old man and a man and woman who were shopping with their two young children. According to reports, the teenager put a gun to the woman’s head and threatened to kill the couple and their kids. The male victim drew his own gun and shot the teen, wounding him. The teen gunman—who police say was the clear aggressor—was charged with four counts of aggravated assault. He’s also accused of participating in a 2022 carjacking that occurred when he and other juveniles escaped from the custody of the state’s Department of Children Services.
• Dec. 26, Lakewood Ranch, Florida: A homeowner fatally shot one of two masked intruders who pried open a window and entered his house. The second suspect fled but was quickly apprehended by police, who said the man was a Chilean national whose 90-day visa to stay in the country expired in September. He now faces a felony murder charge for the death of his accomplice, who was also a foreign national with an active warrant out of Illinois for violating parole while serving a sentence for a prior residential burglary, police said. Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells praised the armed homeowner for “doing what he needed to do to protect his home and to protect his family.” He also warned any would-be criminals that they “should expect to be shot” if they break into local homes.
• Dec. 28, Pageland, South Carolina: Local authorities announced that they wouldn’t file criminal charges against a store clerk who fatally shot a would-be robber, saying that surveillance video confirmed the clerk’s claim that the man first threatened him with a gun.

As these examples demonstrate, more than 230 years after its ratification, the Second Amendment remains as important as ever. No matter the year, the right to keep and bear arms ensures that ordinary Americans have the means to protect themselves and their communities from violent threats.  

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