11 Year Old Boy Shoots a Violent Home Invader in Self Defense

As reported, an 11 year old boy from Palmview, Texas used his .22 rifle to defend himself and his mother from three home invading criminals.

Police say that the boy and his mom were in their house just after midnight when three armed home invaders forced their way inside.  The boy and his mother hid in a bedroom and closed the door, at which point one of the home invader fired a shot through the door, striking the boy in the groin area, according to police.  Although injured, the child, who was carrying a .22 rifle, returned fired, striking one of the home invaders in the neck, and causing all three of them to flee, police say.  The boy was reportedly taken to a local hospital for treatment, and is expected to make a full recovery.  The police are said to have three home invasion suspects in custody, including one who is in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the neck.
When there is a gun in the home, and a child of sufficient maturity is able to access that gun in an emergency, that child is in the best position possible to defend themselves against violent criminals. As another example, this 16 year old boy was able to save himself from a violent home invader by firing in self defense.  Similarly, this young man was able to fend off a home invader by using his BB gun. The same is true for older students who are in college, such as this University of Arizona student who shot two violent home invaders in self defense, or this Georgia college student who used his gun to stop 10 murders and several rapes from being committed.

To be clear, it is tragic that a boy this young was first hurt by a criminal and then had fire a gun in self defense.  In a perfect world, no child would have to suffer that traumatic experience.  Sadly, we live in an imperfect world, filled with evil people who don’t think twice about harming innocents.  Given that fact, the outcome where a child defends himself and his mother against 3 armed criminals is far better than that child and his mother being terribly harmed or killed – which is how all too many violent home invasion end.

I would also not that I’ve heard some anti gun and anti self defense people suggest that banning gun would prevent the child from being shot, and prevent the child from needing to fire in self defense.  That is simply untrue.  Banning guns doesn’t stop criminals from illegally having guns and using them to commit such crimes, as we can see from American cities with strict gun bans, as well as other countries that have nation-wide gun bans. Instead, such gun control laws merely ensure that violent criminals will have a monopoly on (illegal) guns.  Furthermore, even if such laws really did make all guns magically disappear, that would lead to a situation where unarmed criminals would use their superior strength to inflict terrible harm upon their unarmed and physically weaker victims.