This 15-year-old Houston boy, Rochester college student, Philadelphia couple, Detroit small business, and LA grocery store are all glad they had AR-15s the day they were attacked.

In the aftermath of last week's Washington Naval Yard shooting, Democratic gun control advocates have once again been calling for tightened gun control, including a ban on "assault weapons," such as the AR-15.

Only hours after the shooting, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) issued a statement calling on Congress to enact an assault weapons ban, saying, "This is one more event to add to the litany of massacres that occur when a deranged person or grievance killer is able to obtain multiple weapons — including a military-style assault rifle — and kill many people in a short amount of time,” Feinstein said. “When will enough be enough?"

There's just one problem with Feinstein's position: it's totally false.

AR-15s do save lives and for some, make great self-defense weapons.

They did for these five people.

1. Just this April, a 32-year-old named Jasper Brisbon attacked a Philadelphia couple as they entered their home. The man grabbed his AR-15 and pointed it at the intruder.

The man told Brisbon to leave, but he didn't. Instead he advanced menacingly as the resident screamed, "Stop! Stop! Stop!" and finally fired a shot into Brisbon's torso.

He called 911 and an ambulance delivered the intruder to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police said the AR-15 was legally purchased.

2. This February, a man and woman attacked a tax preparation business near Detroit, pointing handguns at the receptionist and owner. What happened next was caught on video.

As you can see in this surveillance video, when one of the attackers advances past two horrified victims to check out the next room of this house converted into a small business office, a security guard behind the door enters with an AR-15 and scares off the intruders with two shots.

3. And this January, two men with a handgun broke into the NY apartment of a Rochester Institute of Technology student named Raymond. His AR-15 may have saved his life.

In one of the creepiest break-in stories I've ever heard, the two intruders broke into the basement of the apartment and waited for a victim to come down to check out the noise.

Raymond's roommate, Chris Boise, told a local television station: "They were waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs," a sentence that will now haunt your dreams (unless you own an AR-15). One of the intruders pointed the barrel of a handgun at Chris.

Chris says he instinctively let out a blood-curdling scream to warn Raymond, who went to get his AR-15 out of its gun bag. By then, one of the intruders began to open the door to the room where Raymond was waiting with his assault prevention rifle.

"By the time I had it out and ready, one of the men came at my door, slowly opened it, saw that there was a barrel on the other side and from there backed out."

The intruders fled. No shots fired.

Here's a fantastic video about it by 13WHAM ABC Rochester:

4. In 2010, a 15-year-old Texas boy used his father's AR-15 to defend himself and his 12yo sister when they were home alone one afternoon and two home invaders attacked their house.

The burglers tried both front and back doors at 2:30pm on a Tuesday before breaking a back window. The cool, decisive young man got his dad's AR-15 and hit one of the suspects multiple times, and they fled, leaving a trail of blood.

Without their dad's AR-15 and the skills to use it, these two children would have certainly been in worse danger. Here's a great video about it from KHOU.com Houston, TX:

5. In the 1992 LA Riots, a mob of hundreds of vandals and looters set Koreatown ablaze. When the LAPD abandoned the Koreans, their semi-auto rifles kept them safe.

Foreground: A man acting as part of an improvised Korean militia kneels by a Ruger Mini-14, "The Poor Man's Assault Rifle," which is semi-automatic like an AR-15 and fires the same ammo.

"Why would you need a gun like that for self defense?"

In 1992, when the LAPD abandoned Koreatown to "several hundred looters" who "left a swath of Koreatown in ashes," "...a group of Koreans armed with shotguns... pistols and automatic rifles" protected the neighborhood.

"Even with guns, they seemed at times overwhelmed by the crowds of looters. For hours [they] fought a back-and-forth battle with several hundred looters."

Since the '60s, multiple deadly riots happen in the US over an average human lifespan. One could happen where you live. And there's no guarantee that the police will protect you.