When you read the published appellate cases for a quarter century or so, you tend to have a not very positive outlook towards guns. Pretty much every situation you read about that involves a gun ends up badly. People murdered, people pulling out weapons unnecessarily, fistfights escalating to death, etc.
So this case merits mention if only because it's an exception.
It's not that everyone ends up wonderfully. People still get shot and seriously injured. But it's nonetheless a pretty good poster child for the "We Need Guns For Self-Defense" crowd:
"Between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m., [Antonio] Branch, who had been out that night,
approached the residence in her car with her son in the backseat. She opened the garage
door with a remote control from her car and drove into the garage. In the garage, Branch
closed the garage door with the remote control and went around her car to get her son out
of the backseat. Defendant and Deary-Smith approached her, pointed guns at her, and
told her to open the door leading into the house. One of the men, probably Deary-Smith, hit Branch in the head with his gun, opening up a wound that required five staples to
close.
[Martez] Laster, who was inside the house, heard the commotion in the garage and grabbed
his .40-caliber handgun. He went to the door that connects the garage to the interior of
the house, unlocked it, and began to open it. As he was opening the door, he was rushed
by defendant and Deary-Smith. Laster took a couple steps back and was shot in the side,
so he returned fire. Defendant and Deary-Smith retreated into the garage.
Both defendant and Deary-Smith had been hit by gunfire from Laster. DearySmith
was hit in the head and fell to the floor of the garage, and defendant, who was hit
in the leg, escaped out the side door of the garage. Meanwhile, Branch got back into her
car, put the car in reverse, and backed up through the closed garage door.
A neighbor saw defendant flee. Defendant limped along, leaving a trail of blood
and dragging himself to a car. He got into the car and drove away. A subsequent
medical examination revealed that defendant was hit twice in the leg, with one of the
bullets breaking his femur. Defendant had gunshot residue on his hands and pants. And
the DNA in the trail of blood from the house to the car matched defendant’s DNA profile.
Also along the trail of blood between the house and the car, defendant dropped a ninemillimeter
handgun.
When law enforcement arrived at the house, Deary-Smith was still on the floor of
the garage. He had zip ties in his pocket, and a loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic
handgun was on the ground next to his head."
There's no explanation in the opinion (and perhaps none anywhere) as to why the perpetrators here targeted this particular house for a home invasion, or why one of its occupants had a gun. But from the perspective of the occupants -- and likely society -- it was good they did. Ends up with the two perpetrators both disabled and captured and a home invasion robbery thwarted.
Could have ended up much worse. For everyone.
