Urban Battleground

Guns Magazine, Sept, 1999 by Massad Ayoob

WHEN CRIME STRIKES, THE PROPER EQUIPMENT AND TACTICS WILL TURN YOUR HOME INTO A SAFE ZONE INSTEAD OF AN...

Something is in your nest with your mate and your cubs. It's a carnivorous predator, and it has intruded with obviously harmful intent.

Instinct tells you what to do. Destroy the invader! But that selfsame instinct screams an equally imperative order: Destroy the intruder without harming the very family we are responsible to protect!

This is the cornerstone of survival instinct in all mammals, us included. It is also pretty much the "prime directive" in home defense planning for the worst case scenario. The dwelling has been breached by violent, lawless intruders capable of killing or maiming and the situation has digressed to what used to be put in simple terms: "Kill or be killed."

If you are reading this publication, I assume your Plan A is to repel this assault with legally possessed firearms, in accordance with the laws of the land. I'm with you so far. It's a "Plan A" I grew up with as a child, the son and the grandson of men who had used lethal force as armed citizens to survive in this country. It's a plan that remains in place for me today as a man who has spent half a century on this planet, and half of that as a sworn law enforcement officer and use of force instructor.

We have the guns. We have the plan. Let's talk about the ammunition. The great small arms authority Col. Jeff Cooper made the point that firearms are secondary, because they are the launchers, and ammunition is primary, because that's what delivers the necessary effect on target.

Mission Objectives

For us to be warranted in firing a lethal weapon at another human being, that other person must be doing something so horrible that law, morality and logic alike demand that he must be stopped as instantaneously as possible. The object is not to kill, but to stop; though if the stopping causes his death, it is a sad but acceptable byproduct of the resolution of the life-threatening emergency he himself created. In violating innocent people's right to live, he surrenders his own.

We must make certain, however, that our exertion of this potentially fatal force does not unnecessarily endanger the lives of the very same innocent people we are protecting. In marksmanship, it is known as "the rule of the backstop." You do not fire the gun unless you are reasonably and prudently certain the bullet will stop in a place that will not endanger innocent life.

Let us pause and analyze what this means.

On a firing range, the backstop is the steel banking or earthen berm behind the targets that catches the projectiles we fire. In the game fields, the backstop is the ground or the heavy vegetation behind the animal we fired at.

It is extremely rare for a defensive shooting to take place where there is a natural backstop, let alone a range berm. It happens occasionally, though: the traffic stop gone bad or the murder attempt out in the middle of nowhere. The occasional shooting in cities where there's nothing but sheer, heavy concrete walls or brick behind the perpetrator, but those too are rare.

We are talking home defense here. I've been to places like rural South Africa where homes are built with massive, heavy walls not only on the outside but also between the rooms on the inside. The descendants of the voortrekkers have spent well over a century defending their remote homes from all manner of besiegers, and they have incorporated it into their architecture.

Most reading this, however, are in the United States. Our homes, whether houses or apartments, simply aren't built like that. We're talking lath and sheetrock. This stuff doesn't stop any but the most frangible bullets. In fact, it tends to plug hollowpoint pistol bullets and make them penetrate deeper once they emerge on the other side.

The Myth And The Reality

Analyzing a ballistics issue that examined penetration and potential over-penetration, Larry Nichols, the rangemaster for the Burbank, California Police Department conducted several tests and discovered some interesting facts. Take a look at the following chart:

Looking at the chart, the first thing you notice is the startling over-penetration of the typical JHP pistol bullet once its nose is packed with an inert substance. The second thing you notice is that the over-penetration effect of .223 rifle ammo may have been highly exaggerated. This validates the recommendation of Thunder Ranch director Clint Smith, who prefers and recommends a short .223 caliber AR-15 rifle as a home defense weapon.

One conclusion we can't escape is this: all these rounds are going to go through walls with enough power to kill any human being on the other side.

This means a backstop is needed, and there is only one backstop you can count on in this situation. It is the body of the violent attacker.

Body As Backstop

One of the respected experts Larry Nichols referred to and drew upon was Dr. Gary Roberts who wrote an article titled "Law Enforcement General Purpose Shoulder Fired Weapons: the Wounding Effects of 5.56mm/.223 Carbines Compared with 12 gauge Shotguns and Pistol Caliber Weapons Using 10 percent Ordnance Gelatin as a Tissue Simulant." It appeared in the July/August 1998 issue of the respected law enforcement journal, Police Marksman.