Defensive Gun Use (DGU) weekly roundup
From 12/15/2025 through 12/21, here are GGWAG stories that made the news.
Here’s a roundup of Defensive Gun Uses (DGUs) from the past week. Click the location to be taken to the article that describes the story in more detail
.Note that any early news stories should be treated with a little skepticism: Investigations are still ongoing at this point.
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Update: 12/18/2025
Original incident: 11/01/2025
A Cole County grand jury has declined to file charges against a person investigated in connection to the shooting death of Erik Spencer in Jefferson City on Nov. 1....
The grand jury found that the person who shot Spencer acted in lawful defense of another, according to the news release.
Update: 12/19/2025
Original incident: 11/8/2025
This story starts with someone brandishing a gun at Griffin Hammond, but the person doing the brandishing was “Subject #1” — a person who isn’t named by the police because he didn’t commit a crime.
Hammond then started to leave the store, drawing a concealed handgun, and then bumped into “Subject #2”. Hammond started shooting, wounding Subject #2, who drew his firearm and returned fire. Hammond was struck and killed.
At first, I thought this was sketchy because Subject #1 brandished a gun first. The fact that he’s not being named or charged suggests that he was doing so because of a criminal threat from Hammond. If that’s true, this is actually two DGUs in one.
Incident: 12/17/2025
A man entered a home “uninvited and unannounced” (as the three reports I’ve seen say) and got into an altercation with the homeowner. The homeowner shot the intruder, who died.