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A recent NBC News article, Judge blocks California's ban on high-capacity magazines over 2nd Amendment concerns claims the judge wrote an 86 page decision that included a story that a woman fended-off three armed home intruders using a firearm and a high-capacity magazine.

In the third case, the pajama-clad woman with a high-capacity magazine took on three armed intruders, firing at them while simultaneously calling for help on her phone.

"She had no place to carry an extra magazine and no way to reload because her left hand held the phone with which she was still trying to call 911," the judge wrote, saying she killed one attacker while two escaped.

Did this happen?

As far as I'm aware, the judge's decision did not list the woman by name (but I'm struggling to find a full copy of the decision either), which is why I find the story difficult to fact-check.

Reasons why I'm skeptical are:

  • Home invasions involving three armed assailants seem pretty rare in America, unless it's gang or mob violence. It seems more common for one financially-desperate person to go on a solo robbery, target unlocked homes, and give-up if the homes prove to be occupied.
  • It seems like ordinary burglars would give-up on a robbery after 6+ shots are fired. I don't see why they would keep persisting at that point unless this were a vendetta. You're better off just looking for a different unoccupied house, and I wonder why they suspected that this house offered some sort of bounty that was valuable enough to brave being shot at by dozens of bullets.
  • The whole layout of the situation feels like it was architected to justify a legitimate use for high-capacity magazines.
  • Supposedly she wouldn't have been able to reload ordinary-capacity magazines because she couldn't put the phone down, but like... she could put the phone down. When you call 911, you're actually allowed to put the phone down for a bit if you need to.
  • It's also kind of hard to accept the justification that an ordinary-capacity magazine would not have been capable of achieving the result "she killed one attacker while two escaped."
Oddthinking
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John
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    Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/ap/2019/03/29/judge-blocks-californias-high-capacity-ammunition-ban/ – Daniel R Hicks Mar 31 '19 at 02:44
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    @DanielRHicks I'm sorry, but this Snopes article doesn't provide any supplementary information -- it pretty much matches-up with the information in the link I provided. But I wasn't fact-checking that the ban was stricken-down; I was fact-checking whether the story in the judge's decision was made-up. – John Mar 31 '19 at 04:53
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    All of your reasons for not believing the story are merely personal incredulity. – Joe Mar 31 '19 at 22:09
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    I would point out that it is easy to pick apart a situation when one is reading an account of it. Consider how hard it would be to set a phone down, manipulate the controls on a handgun, properly insert a new magazine, and pick up the phone all while being rushed by three attackers. You have to deal with a heart rate that is through the roof, shaking hands, and no fine motor skills. – Drew_J Apr 01 '19 at 12:30
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    @Joe: Sure, but that is part of what this site is about. Taking a position of personal incredulity and following up with evidence. – Oddthinking Apr 02 '19 at 01:45
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    I don't know how complex "calling 911" is in the US. But I have taught self-defense courses, which included some "playing through scenarios". For a scenario like this one, I used to recommend to just dial the emergency number (911, 999, 110, whatever), *and put the phone aside*. One, you have both hands free. Two, it isn't immediately obvious you *have* called 911, or where the phone is. After a couple of seconds, you start getting vocal about what's happening, and where you are. The operator will get the hint pretty quickly. (And yes, I double-checked this with emergency operators.) – DevSolar Apr 02 '19 at 08:19
  • Define high capacity please. A 9mm handguns' standard capacity is 10-15 rounds. An AR takes a 20 or 30 round magazine standard. Available aftermarket magazines can be 50-100 rounds! So as usual the details matter. The way the question is posed nearly every semi automatic firearm that takes a magazine of any kind is "high capacity." – geoO Apr 03 '19 at 16:54
  • The California law bans possessing any magazine holding more than 10 bullets. So I guess you could say they consider anything with 11 or more bullets to be a high capacity magazine that people have no legitimate reason to own or use. – Brian Sep 01 '23 at 01:21

2 Answers2

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This sounds like Chen Fengzhu. In 2016, she awoke to three armed men invading her home, and scared them off after shooting at them, one dying from a gunshot wound in the driveway. The other two escaped, but 18 months later one of them would be arrested and face charges for this.

The gun she used was "a pistol", though I can't identify what type. Other than that, the other details match exactly:

  • Pajamas
  • Phone in left hand, trying to call police. From what she describes in the interview, at the point when she was dual wielding the phone and the gun, she had not yet gotten through to 911.
  • Though Chen owns a restaurant (apparently a seafood market), the incident happened in her residence. She lived there with her employee (and kept a lot of supplies for her restaurant there, as can be seen in multiple shots). According to Shanghiist: "Chen herself told overseas Chinese media that often female Chinese businesswomen are targeted in her area because of their reputation for storing a lot of money at home, rather than at the bank."

There is high quality footage of the attack: Video shows woman shooting at burglars during Gwinnett home invasion

woman and gun

Laurel
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    This does seem to indeed match-up with the details stated in the judge's decision; so I find it plausible that it is the same event, and I've accepted the answer. – John Mar 31 '19 at 04:54
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    Yeah, but.... this doesn't confirm that, as the judge claimed, a high-capacity magazine was part of the equation. – PoloHoleSet Apr 01 '19 at 19:55
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    As an addition to Laurel 's answer. The gun in the video was most likely a semi auto pistol, instead of a revolver, which holds either 12 or 14 depending on the caliper. This would have made it illegal under the California magazine ban. – Wesley Apr 01 '19 at 21:18
  • I've certainly handled such a pistol that could only hold 9 bullets. – Daniel R Hicks Apr 01 '19 at 21:23
  • True as I am making a couple of assumptions based on the two articles. There are some that hold 18 as well. Or the extended mags that hold 30. My answer was meant to go along with the other as how they judge could make the claim for high cap mags. As the gun type and caliper isn't mentioned in either article we will never know. – Wesley Apr 01 '19 at 21:28
  • I think a reasonable conclusion is that this is fairly likely the incident cited by the judge's decision; but that there is still room for the possibility that the detail about the high-capacity magazine was made-up. – John Apr 02 '19 at 01:50
  • My M&P 9mm holds 17 rounds. It's not extra long or anything. The rounds stair-stack, so it is wider than older magazines. An extended magazine easily holds 30+ rounds, for this firearm. –  Apr 02 '19 at 01:58
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    The article says she fired *all* the rounds. I was able to count only 9 fired from the footage shown. If there's more footage, there may have been more shots fired. How many is "high capacity" anyway? 11+? –  Apr 02 '19 at 02:14
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    After some searching, I found many articles on this event, revealing the name of the man she killed, the name of the one they found 18 months later, and that the third is still at large. None reveal how many shots the woman fired. –  Apr 02 '19 at 03:58
  • TFA says two intruders, the judge said three. Sounds like maybe he was just citing something he read about from memory. – dont_shog_me_bro Apr 02 '19 at 09:33
  • Also given that its a hand gun could the magazine be that large? As an aside firing randomly in the general direction of intruders fleeing the scene, at night, seems rather irresponsible. Her neighbours must have found some bullet damage the following morning. – dont_shog_me_bro Apr 02 '19 at 09:36
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    The news says "unloaded all magacine", I count from the flashes in the video 9 shots. That matches @DanielRHicks comment, so certainly not a "high capacity magazine" but an standard one. – bradbury9 Apr 02 '19 at 13:02
  • @dont_shog_me_bro Double-stacked handgun magazines will hold more than 9 rounds. Such a gun might very well be problematic for a smaller person, though. – Loren Pechtel Sep 09 '21 at 00:08
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Thanks to Laurel's answer we can check fact what happened and see if that did happen or not.

  • Home invasions involving three armed assailants seem pretty rare in America, unless it's gang or mob violence. It seems more common for one financially-desperate person to go on a solo robbery, target unlocked homes, and give-up if the homes prove to be occupied.

It was not a home invasion, but a business/shop. It makes sense.

  • It seems like ordinary burglars would give-up on a robbery after 6+ shots are fired. I don't see why they would keep persisting at that point unless this were a vendetta. You're better off just looking for a different unoccupied house, and I wonder why they suspected that this house offered some sort of bounty that was valuable enough to brave being shot at by dozens of bullets.

They did indeed fleed acording to the video, but the woman chased them shooting.

  • The whole layout of the situation feels like it was architected to justify a legitimate use for high-capacity magazines.

Totally agree, there are no signs of a high capacity magazine. Assuming an average of 10 bullets for standard capacity and the commentor of the news saying she unloaded the magazine we can conclude checking the video she was using a regular one.

  • Supposedly she wouldn't have been able to reload ordinary-capacity magazines because she couldn't put the phone down, but like... she could put the phone down. When you call 911, you're actually allowed to put the phone down for a bit if you need to.

The incident did not last enough to reload the magazine, afet 9 shots there were no intruders and one of the intruders was dead.

  • It's also kind of hard to accept the justification that an ordinary-capacity magazine would not have been capable of achieving the result "she killed one attacker while two escaped."

The video Laurel found proves you are right in that assumption

Conclusion

True: That woman did kill one and two fled, using a regular magazine.

False: The judge claims are wrong because clearly was not a high capacity magazine.

bradbury9
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    I think you are wrong to say that it "clearly was not a high-capacity magazine". It might have been, there is just no evidence to support it. – TonyK Apr 03 '19 at 16:21
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    Besides the nine shots seen in the video and the link where it says that most USA States high capacity is more than 10 bullets? – bradbury9 Apr 03 '19 at 16:37
  • You are assuming that the magazine was full before the shooting started, and empty after it ended. – TonyK Apr 03 '19 at 16:50
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    Your answer has a fatal flaw: the assumption that the video shows all her shots fired. A further assumption, though perhaps justified, is that only 9 shots can be identified from the video we have. I'm the one who said he saw 9 shots, but I wasn't looking very hard. –  Apr 03 '19 at 17:27
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    I counted them too, saw 3 times the video. 9 shoots, at most 10 – bradbury9 Apr 03 '19 at 18:46
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    What does this add to the other answer? Just personal speculation and opinion? – Oddthinking Apr 04 '19 at 04:23
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    "not a home invasion, but a business/shop" - that seems to directly conflict with the news report.This article [confirms it was a house](https://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/local/second-suspect-in-home-invasion-identified-arrested/article_9409d4c0-0f8d-5998-ac40-64a5d04494cb.html) containing some restaurant supplies. – Oddthinking Apr 04 '19 at 04:24
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    Immediately after the last shot we see in the video the gun's slide is unmistakably locked back which is pretty solid evidence that she emptied the magazine (with the last round sent straight out the front(?) door and, passing through an undetermined number of hapless neighbors' properties :P ). – B Layer May 11 '19 at 13:13
  • Putting the phone down is a good idea--but while you're dialing you can't hold a reload magazine. If you've moved from where your extra ammunition is it's not going to do you much good. The reality is that civilians basically never reload in a gunfight. – Loren Pechtel Sep 09 '21 at 00:11