Based on real life action:

[oakchas]

This scenario is based on a recent occurence in Florida. (Link at bottom of page.) How would you respond?

You and family members and girlfriends are watching tv. Your fiance sees a man in your driveway saying something about the nice rims on your car, and the man is holding a gun.

Your girlfriend and your brother's girlfriend take the children to a back bedroom while you lock the doors.

You and your brother are now standing in your living room.

BG is pointing a gun (Glock 27)at your two young daughters and sister-in-law in the back yard (they snuck out a window thinking the BG was inside). BG tells you to unlock the sliding glass door and step outside.

You have access to a sawed off shotgun.

What do you do?

In this scenario... you cannot "rewind the tape."
Most of us would never allow the sequence of events to occur as they did.

The facts that are immutable are:

1:You have only an illegal SBR in your posession.
2:Your children and an in-law are being held at gunpoint outside your sliding glass door in the back yard.

Link to actual story

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[ctsketch]

If its all I have to defend my family's life, then damned be the law, i'm firing that illegal weapon

[msgt/ret]

If its all I have to defend my family's life, then damned be the law, i'm firing that illegal weapon

+1 I agree my greatest concern would be stopping the BG without harming my own family members.

[OldVet]

The fact that you possess the "illegal" SBR shows you weren't overly concerned about that bit of law to begin with, so using it for SD shouldn't be a concern now. As for the rest of the scenerio, I'm not there, so...

[bladenbullet]

If its all I have to defend my family's life, then damned be the law, i'm firing that illegal weapon

pretty much this ^^^^

[oakchas]

Yep, I'm using it too... but are we shooting through the slider? BG's got a gun pointed at family... will the slugs reach him thru the glass? How are we engaging this guy... Somewhere in the article it says the BG is about 20 feet away from my family members... if that's the case, this is pretty quickly dealt with... BOOM BOOM.

If he's closer.... what then?

[Guantes]

Do what you have to to protect your family.

While the chronology of events is poorly written, it appears that not threatening people would make it less likely that you would be put in this situation.

Westphal told police he targeted the Garcia home and wanted to confront the "dudes" who he said had been taunting him. Police say Westphal said someone from inside the home showed off a shotgun and asked, "You want some of this?" Westphal said he responded with, "Let's do this."

[SIXTO]

Yep, I'm using it too... but are we shooting through the slider? BG's got a gun pointed at family... will the slugs reach him thru the glass? How are we engaging this guy... Somewhere in the article it says the BG is about 20 feet away from my family members... if that's the case, this is pretty quickly dealt with... BOOM BOOM.

If he's closer.... what then?

Even though the original scenario makes no mention of slugs vs. shot, there is no way I'd chance a shot through plate glass with either; especially with a unproven combo of the shortened barrel and ammo.

[oakchas]

Do what you have to to protect your family.

While the chronology of events is poorly written, it appears that not threatening people would make it less likely that you would be put in this situation.

Westphal told police he targeted the Garcia home and wanted to confront the "dudes" who he said had been taunting him. Police say Westphal said someone from inside the home showed off a shotgun and asked, "You want some of this?" Westphal said he responded with, "Let's do this."

Exactly Guantes, that's one reason I only based the scenario on the actual events... It sounds as though the victims may have started this sometime back.

While most of us who take our defenses seriously would have multiple layers of forewarning from dogs, alarms and the like.... and probably not have an illegal SBR as our only defensive weapon.... there are many folks who do not have layers of defense to get through...

So, without changing the scenario... Just clarifying it:

Your brother is with you in the living room. You have a BG in your back yard holding family at gunpoint at some distance away from them (let's use the 20' in the story)...
You have a loaded, sawed off shotty (prolly a side by side) and a box of shells (Lets assume a box of 00 buck, no slugs).
BG "calls you out" thru the slider.

Your move.

[SpringerXD]

If its all I have to defend my family's life, then damned be the law, i'm firing that illegal weapon

Yep. I'm not going to be standing over the grave of a loved one and thinking, "at least I obeyed the law." Forget that.

[obxned]

If I'm on the jury where someone is charged with possessing an illegal weapom that he used to protect his family, that man is going home!

[Guantes]

Load boomer. Put two more rounds in strong side waistband and two between fingers of off side hand. Standing to the side of the door, push door open, roll out and fire two. Yell at family, "get on the ground". Roll back in reload, roll out and assess.

[gruntingfrog]

Of course I would not have the illegal weapon, but given the scenario as is I still don't think that there's any need to bring the shotgun into it.

1. Step outside to "talk."
2. Hold his attention on me while my brother goes out the front door, sneaks around and blindsides him with a baseball bat.

[oakchas]

Of course I would not have the illegal weapon, but given the scenario as is I still don't think that there's any need to bring the shotgun into it.

1. Step outside to "talk."
2. Hold his attention on me while my brother goes out the front door, sneaks around and blindsides him with a baseball bat.

In the actual scene, he did step outside to talk... he got shot multiple times... and the brother who was "sneaking around back"(?) got shot, and then pistol whipped....

[Bill MO]

Load boomer. Put two more rounds in strong side waistband and two between fingers of off side hand. Standing to the side of the door, push door open, roll out and fire two. Yell at family, "get on the ground". Roll back in reload, roll out and assess.

I believe I'll go with Guantes on this one. Legal or not the shotgun will be used. Save the family and face the gun charges later.