California Democrats have made exercising your Second Amendment rights an expensive and time-consuming process, but they have yet to kill off the culture of lawful gun ownership or the right to act in armed self-defense.
One homeowner in San Jacinto put those rights into play this past weekend during a terrifying encounter with an armed home invader.
The incident happened Friday night, just before 10:30 p.m. The homeowner had left his residence and was visiting with a neighbor when he heard the sound of gunshots and screaming from his property. As the Riverside County Sheriff's Department detailed in a press release:
The homeowner ran to his residence and saw an unknown male intruder inside his home, armed with a shotgun. The homeowner armed himself and confronted the suspect inside the residence. During the confrontation, the suspect fired multiple rounds at the homeowner. The homeowner returned fire, striking the suspect. There were no additional injuries reported.
Sheriff's officials say the deceased intruder was 45-year-old Ismael Martinez. According to investigators, just a short time before Martinez entered the home he had assaulted his 52-year-old girlfriend with a knife. Neither Martinez nor his girlfriend have any connection to the homeowner, and it's still unclear whether the woman had somehow found her way inside the armed citizen's home in an attempt to get away from her boyfriend, or if she screamed out for help while she was outside the residence.
Police found her in a car about a half-mile away from the armed citizen's home a short time after the shooting. She was taken to a local hospital after being injured by Martinez, and at last report is stable.
The homeowner wasn't injured by Martine, despite the intruder firing multiple blasts from his shotgun. Authorities haven't detailed if Martinez had a previous criminal history or if the shotgun belonged to him, but that information is likely to be released in a future update.
The defensive gun use generated a fair amount of media attention over the weekend, with KTLA, NBC Los Angeles, and CBS Los Angeles all covering the incident, with some outlets showing video from the scene shot on Saturday morning.
The sheriff's department says its investigation is still ongoing, but based on the information that has already been released the homeowner shouldn't face any charges unless evidence emerges that wildly contradicts the armed citizen's account of what happened. After hearing screams and gunshots, he ran to his home (where he has a legal right to be) and was shot at by an intruder armed with a shotgun. At that point the homeowner was well within his rights to use lethal force in self-defense, even under California's gun control laws.
Hopefully the sheriff's department will release more details in the days ahead. Where was Martinez's girlfriend when Martinez was confronted by the homeowner? Did the armed citizen protect her as well as himself? Did Martinez have any prior convictions to his name, and if so, how many California gun laws did he break in order to get his hands on a shotgun?
We know that California's gun control laws don't stop violent predators. Thankfully, in this case they didn't prevent a San Jacinto man from exercising his Second Amendment rights either.
Editor's Note: Do you appreciate Bearing Arms's reporting on defensive gun uses like this? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member