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It was supposed to be a family reunion.
A Black family in Leesburg, Georgia had come together from across the region. Around 20 children. Grandparents. A normal Sunday evening in early June.
Then a car rolled past the house and a man leaned out the window screaming racial slurs. The family did the right thing and called the police immediately. But the law couldn't move at the speed of the threat. About five minutes later that same car came back. This time the man stepped out wearing a ballistic vest and carrying an AR-15.
He opened fire into a yard full of children and elderly relatives.
One of those family members was Ramell Green, a Marine Corps veteran who happened to be carrying his personal handgun. Green didn't freeze and he didn't run. He stepped into the middle of the street, moved toward the shooter, and returned accurate fire. Even through body armor, his rounds degraded the attacker's mobility and dropped him. The shooting stopped right there.
In his own words, the attacker "found out he's not the only one that has training."
Nobody in that family was killed. Sit with that for a second, given what was pointed at them.
So what can we learn from this? At least three things.
1. The Fight Came Fast and Hard
Green had no warning and no time to prepare. The attacker picked the moment and showed up armored and committed. That's how nearly all of these go. The bad guy chooses the time and arrives ready. The good guy has to be ready right then, with the gun already on his body and the training already in his hands. There's no timeout to go fetch a gun from the safe, no pause to decide whether this is worth fighting for. If you carry, you already made that decision. The only open question is whether you've done the work to back it up.
2. Innocent People Were Everywhere
This wasn't an empty parking lot. It was a residential street packed with roughly 20 kids and multiple elderly relatives. The attacker chose that target precisely because of the crowd. And that same crowd is what made Green's job brutally hard: limited safe directions, family diving under parked cars, people scattering everywhere. Based on the reporting, Green moved. He didn't plant his feet and trade shots from one spot. He repositioned to change his angle and put himself between the rifle and the kids. In a crowded environment your problem isn't just "can I hit him." It's "can I hit him without endangering everyone behind and around him." That changes how you move and when you press the trigger.
3. Every Miss Is Another Potential Victim, and You'll Have Less Ammo Than He Does
This is the one that should keep you up at night. Green was firing in a yard full of people he loved. Every second that passed with him not stopping the threat was another potential victim. And he was the underdog on firepower: a handgun against a rifle, likely the single magazine against who knows what. When you're outgunned and surrounded by innocents, accuracy and speed aren't a nice-to-have. It's the entire ballgame. You have to hit what you're aiming at, on demand, under stress, at whatever distance the moment hands you. Most gun owners have never honestly tested whether they can do that. They shoot a tight, slow group at the range and assume it carries over. It doesn't.
That's exactly why Riley built the Pistol Intelligence (PIQ) course. It's an online program built around one thing: raw pistol skill, the ability to run a handgun both fast and accurately when it actually matters.
At the heart of it are the PIQ standards, a series of tests across the 5 core shooting skills that combine into a single PIQ score. It shows you exactly where you stand right now, then helps you break through the things that quietly hold most shooters back.
The range day where you find out you're not as good as you assumed is a whole lot cheaper than finding out the way Ramell Green almost did.
👉 Build Real Pistol Skill With PIQ
Jacob Paulsen
President | ConcealedCarry.com
P.S. Ramell Green didn't get to choose the distance, the lighting, or the fact that his family was directly behind his target. He just had to make the hits. PIQ is how you build the skill to do the same, before the day you need it. Take a look here.
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