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Jun
Special Forces Association holds “court martial” for vet who shot home invader
Veteran Smokey Taylor says his .22 caliber bullet bounced off the cranial ridge of his assailant.
Note: The “court martial” was a joke.
Retired Army Green Beret Smokey Taylor got his court martial this weekend and came away feeling good about it.
Taylor, at age 80 the oldest member of Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association, was on trial by his peers under the charge of “failing to use a weapon of sufficient caliber” in the shooting of an intruder at his home in Knoxville, TN, in December.
The entire affair, of course, was very much tongue in cheek. Taylor had been awakened in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 2007, when an intruder broke into his home. He investigated the noises with one of his many weapons in hand.
When the intruder threatened him with a knife, Taylor warned him, then brought his .22 caliber pistol to bear and shot him right between the eyes.
“That boy had the hardest head I’ve ever seen,” Taylor said after his trial. “The bullet bounced right off.” The impact knocked the would-be thief down momentarily. He crawled out of the room then got up and ran out the door and down the street. Knoxville police apprehended him a few blocks away and he now awaits trial in the Knox County jail.
The charges against Taylor were considered to be serious. He is a retired Special Forces Weapons Sergeant with extensive combat experience during the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
“Charges were brought against him under the premise that he should have saved the county and taxpayers the expense of a trial,” said Chapter XXXIII President Bill Long of Asheville. “He could have used a .45 or .38. The .22 just wasn’t big enough to get the job done.”
Taylor’s defense attorney, another retired Weapons Sergeant, disagreed. He said Taylor had done the right thing in choosing to arm himself with a .22.
“If he’d used a .45 or something like that the round would have gone right through the perp, the wall, the neighbor’s wall and possibly injured some innocent child asleep in its bed,” he said. “I believe the evidence shows that Smokey Taylor exercised excellent judgment in his choice of weapons. He did nothing wrong, and clearly remains to this day an excellent weapons man.”
Counsel for the defense then floated a theory as to why the bullet bounced off the perp’s forehead.
“He was victimized by old ammunition,” he said, “just as he was in Korea and again in Vietnam, when his units were issued ammo left over from World War II.”
Selecting a safe home defense round.
These are polymer (plastic) bullets with a copper jacket. The polymer practically vaporizes on impact. These are designed to make a hole in an attacker, but not to penetrate walls and harm a bystander.
Hydroshock(TM) rounds. These will rapidly expand causing major tissue damage to an assailant with minimal risk to innocent bystanders.
When purchasing a gun and rounds for self-defense, homeowners should be aware of two things. A larger caliber is needed to have serious stopping power. However, the bullet should expend all its energy as fast as possible to avoid over penetration. For example, a full metal jacketed round (FMJ) will cause the least amount of tissue damage to the assailant and possibly penetrate walls and injure an innocent bystander. These bullets are also more likely to ricochet. Bullets that expand will deplete their energy the fastest and penetrate the least. The best thing to do is buy rounds that are specifically designed for home defense.
I wonder why they call him smokey lol. Though if he was a retired white male vet, he would be facing much harsher backlash as we all know. Either way the right to defend yourself should be a natural “right.” That no totalitarian government should be able to stomp on. Sadly if you live in Europe, Illinois, and even new york and Massachusetts are pushing for “gun control.”
June 22nd, 2012 at 5:14 pmI guess because Mr. Taylor is black, and assuming his assailant was also, he is allowed to use the phrase, That boy had the hardest head I’ve ever seen,” .
June 22nd, 2012 at 5:26 pmI don’t know about most other states, but in Mass. there are a lot of ltc’s issued every day. It depends on the police chief and you can’t have any criminal record. Disqualifiers are dui, domestic violence, convictions for a drug offense, assault, etc.
June 23rd, 2012 at 6:13 amYou used to be able to qualify if you went at least five years without a felony, not anymore.
I would not use a handgun as my primary weapon for home defense. I bought a very small tactical shotgun. It holds 9 rounds, and I usually keep it loaded with buckshot. It will not penetrate through multiple walls. It will make a mess, but the very most important part of the equation is, you do not have to aim carefully.
I bought this gun after an early morning home invasion. Wich I would have had it then. I realized, the chaos of the situation called for something that could be brought to bear quickly, easily and effective, and well as have a certain terror factor for the intruder.
June 23rd, 2012 at 8:29 amWell, could have been a few things… Maybe he liked his cigars or was known for smoking a pipe. Green Berets, then and still today, generally don’t tolerate smokers of the green leaf within their units. It was not that uncommon, as I understand, amongst many regular and conscript units deployed to Vietnam in that time. But even in that quagmire, Green Berets, SEALs, and (for the most part) the Marines were able to keep that garbage out of their units.
Of course, Political Correctness was pretty new back then, and people were still able to take things lightly. Maybe it was a reference to his “smoked” skin? Guess one would just have to ask him!
June 23rd, 2012 at 7:47 pm.22s might be easy to buy, but it is weak as a defense round when fired through a pistol. A .22 rifle probably would have cracked the assailant’s cranium, because of the higher velocity provided by the barrel. But a .22 pistol is very weak… in some cases they will do less damage than an air pistol. A .38 round is also fairly low power, but it at least will have the mass to knock a man back even if it does not penetrate.
Currently, my father has sole access to the firearms.. But when I move out to a free state, I will respond to a home invader with a .357 revolver and my dagger.
June 23rd, 2012 at 7:55 pmI’ve been told that the very best round for home protection is the “Mag-Safe” round. It has tiny BBs in its hollow head, that immediately empty upon impact, allowing all the energy of the round to be absorbed at the surface of the target. When used indoors, its energy is usually dissipated by a sheet of drywall, so it does not penetrate into other rooms and injure their occupants…Mag-Safe ammo ain’t cheap…!
June 23rd, 2012 at 8:03 pm