This Ithaca pump shotgun is typical of the tens of millions used for home defense and hunting in the United States every year
A troubled Phoenix man shot and killed a family of four on Saturday, the 26th of October, in a case that is reminiscent of the Peach House Gunfight of last year in Texas.
That case also involved a disagreement about dogs. A couple was killed, but a neighbor made a long range pistol shot that stopped the killer as he was firing at a police officer.
In the Arizona case, the armed neighbor did not open his door, and the deranged gunman fired through it, missing him. The neighbor retrieved his gun, and dodged another shotgun blast directed at him when he opened a second story window. The killer then committed suicide.
Apparently, the initial killing occurred indoors when the shooter killed four members of a family and their two dogs. A building acts as a giant silencer. Gun shots are rarely recognized when they are fired indoors.
In the Peach House gunfight in Texas, all the shooting occurred out of doors.
The deranged killer in Phoenix used a pump shotgun, one of the most common and popular firearms in the United States. There may be 50 million of them in the country. They are extremely popular for home defense and hunting, and are commonly used by police. They are seldom used in crime. In 2010, the FBI recorded shotguns as being used in 373 cases out of 12,996 murders, or less than 3% of all murders. That includes all shotguns, of which pump shotguns are a fraction.
Shotguns are commonly used to defend against criminals. Here are some recent examples: Texas , Washington, Oklahoma, and the famous case of the teen age young mother from January of 2012.
©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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