Authorities in Osceola County, Florida have arrested five men who allegedly committed a brazen home invasion at an Airbnb property earlier this month before the occupants were able to fend off their assailants with the help of their firearms.
Sheriff Christopher Blackmon says there have been several reported home invasions in the area, and the five could be connected to other crimes. In the November 5 incident, the five men are accused of arming themselves and forcing their way into an short-term rental, but at least one resident was able to fight back.
The victim, a juvenile female, told law enforcement that a group of men got out of a vehicle carrying various types of guns.
She told officers the suspects were dressed in black and wearing ski masks.
According to OCSO, the victim was forced inside the residence at gunpoint, and the group of home invaders entered the house.
An altercation occurred, and property was forcibly taken from the victim, OCSO said.
Shots were fired, and the suspects, along with everyone inside the home, fled the scene.
Officers noted several pistol and rifle casings scattered around the outside of the residence. Inside, bullet holes could be seen in the walls, and the rear sliding glass door had been shattered.
"There was like an old wild, wild west shoot out inside the house,” said Sheriff Christopher Blackmon, “and miraculously, nobody was shot, nobody was injured, a lot of damage to the house."
Authorities haven't released any details about the "shoot out" inside the home, so we don't know if it was the juvenile female who was able to grab a gun and shoot at the home invaders or if one or more of the other individuals inside the home acted in self-defense, but if the sheriff is describing this as a gunfight that indicates that bullets were going both ways.
Blackmon hasn't said anything at all to suggest any of the occupants of the rental are facing charges, so I think it's safe to assume that the armed citizens who acted in self-defense lawfully possessed their firearms. Three of the five men arrested for the crime, though, are 20-years-old, which is too young to legally carry a firearm in the Sunshine State.
Another recent attempted home invasion, this one in Volusia County, Florida, also involved multiple suspects too young to legally carry a gun, though in that case at least two of the suspects would have been prohibited from carrying because of their long criminal histories, even if Florida allowed 18-year-olds to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
The group tried to break into the home, and when they couldn't, they started shooting, VCSO said.
A week later, deputies arrested two suspects believed to be involved in the incident.
One individual was identified as Jamar Re’Shaun Battle, 18, who has an extensive criminal record with 38 prior felony charges and 15 misdemeanors, according to deputies.
The second person was identified as James Jermaine Cropper Jr., 18, who had 22 prior felonies and four misdemeanors.
How does an 18-year-old manage to catch this many felony charges and remain out on the streets instead of being in prison? It's possible that a majority of those felony charges were resolved via plea deals or Battle and Cropper were released from juvenile custody once they turned 18, but either way its absurd that these young adults were in a position to allegedly carry out this crime given their prolific criminal past.
These incidents not only highlight the importance of being able to protect yourself against random encounters with violent criminals, but are further evidence that Florida's ban on retail gun sales to adults younger than 21 and its prohibition on lawful carry for under-21s are doing nothing to prevent young criminals from illegally acquiring and using guns in wanton acts of violence. The Supreme Court has the opportunity to do the right thing and strike down Florida's discriminatory gun laws by granting cert to NRA v. Glass, but at the moment that case and several other challenges dealing with laws prohibiting the sale and carriage of firearms by under-21s are in limbo; they were distributed for the Court's November 14 conference, but no action has been taken since then.. including re-listing them for a future conference.
If someone has no problem committing a violent felony in order to take stuff that doesn't belong to them, I'm guessing they're not going to lose any sleep about breaking the law in order to get a gun to aid them in their criminal activity. SCOTUS needs to step up and ensure that adults, including those under the age of 21, have full access to their Second Amendment rights. It's the right move to make constitutionally, as well as from a common sense standpoint.
