TX: Fed-up homeowner shoots would be thief neighbor in the groin

[Skiprr]

One Range Officer I knew recommended the pelvic girdle to stop a person . He emphasized "breaking bone".

There is a LOT going on inside the pelvic girdle, and while you might well break bone, it may not be necessary. The descending aorta bifurcates into the two femoral arteries. The internal structures of the genitalia and urinary tract. The ascending and descending colon. Major nerves. Etc., etc. Put a bullet into someone's bladder, and the spasms alone ought to drop them like a microphone. Hit a sciatic, femoral, or pudendal nerve, and the fight's probably over.

Okay, TAM. You're now retired. Go write those novels you've been dreaming about since you were 14.

I'm very, very serious.

[Jusme]

Just a note that, if my handgun has to be deployed while I'm at manual-engagement range (i.e., "bad breath distance"), the pelvic girdle is going to be my primary target. Several solid reasons for this, but since TAM (and others on the Forum) had to stand on a range several years ago for an hour listening to me pontificate on the subject--and I don't want to make them suffer again--suffice it to say that I think the old "rock and lock" pistol presentation technique went out with disco. That the pistol is going to stay pressed against my ribcage, unsighted, indexed at a point somewhere between the bad guy's navel and the top of his thighs until I can extricate myself by at least five feet.

Not knowing more about the specifics of the incident, it may very well be that the homeowner went through some of the same training as me during the last 15 years. It sounds ludicrous for that to be a sighted shot (ignoring Hollywood) but could quite realistically happen at contact distances. I wonder how many rounds were fired?

Thank you once again, Houston Chronicle, for giving us nothing but a headline and about 100 vacuous words that tell us next to nothing...then failing to follow-up on the next-to-nothing over a day later.

Yep pretty poor reporting. But you may be correct in that the homeowner had that training, but since it doesn't even say what type of firearm was used, it could be that he used a shotgun, and just shot "low"

I have taught Mrs. Jusme some of the "contact distance" shooting I learned as LEO, with the gun wedged firmly against her ribs, shooting while putting distance between herself and the threat. I still practice it quite often when I can. and most shots do end up in the pelvic area, of the target.

[ELB]

Given the number of close range shootings reported that result in lots of misses and few hits, the fact the homeowner placed one somewhere on the perp's body ands stopped him cold with one shot is remarkable. In this case I lean toward the possibility that this particular placement was a "lucky" or "unlucky" hit, depending on which side of the equation you are.