Firsthand Armed Citizen Experiences

base image: ruger.com

Studies indicate that firearms are used more than 2-million times a year for personal protection. The following are firsthand experiences of armed citizens who displayed or used their firearm for personal protection…

 
Hazel Poole, 85, was at home playing with her puppy around 8:30 p.m. when there was a knock at the front door. Little did she know that she would open the door to two masked men wielding knives. Poole wasted no time and dashed to her bedroom where she kept her .38-cal. handgun. With confidence she pointed the gun at the men and ordered them to leave her home or she would shoot. Both men fled without hesitation.
-The Star Press, Muncie, IN.

 
A man in his early 40s entered a nail salon at about 5:30 p.m. and began asking a female employee about purchasing diamonds. When the confused woman told the man she had no money to buy diamonds, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a pistol. When a customer getting her nails done saw what was happening, she reached into her purse and pulled out her own firearm. Upon seeing the woman’s gun, the man quickly fled the salon.
-Casper Star-Tribune, Casper, WY.

 
Two men targeted the home of Jerry Stremovihtg, 62, and Kenneth Conley, 53, one evening. Conley was having a meal on the front porch when the two men approached him. They beat him and repeatedly used a taser to subdue him. After gaining entry to the home, the suspects entered Stremovihtg’s bedroom. Stremovihtg met the intruders with a .38-cal revolver. He fired several rounds causing them to flee the home. One suspect, a 35-year-old male, died in the front yard from a gunshot wound.
-The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Holly Hill, FL

 
Gary Cherry was driving at approximately 8:30 a.m. when he noticed two vehicles on the side of the road. Cherry pulled over to help when he saw there was a man holding a woman to the ground face down and stabbing her repeatedly. Cherry, a concealed carry license holder, quickly retrieved his firearm and ordered the man to get on the ground as he dialed 9-1-1. Crystal Ward was traveling the same routed when she spotted Cherry holding the perpetrator at gunpoint at the side of the entrance ramp. Ward stopped to assist and discovered a crying baby boy in one of the vehicles. The suspect was later taken into custody and the victim was flown to a nearby hospital with multiple stab wounds.
-Montgomery County Police Reporter, Plum Grove, TX

 
Two teenage boys were spotted by a neighbor as they loaded items from the cabin next door into a vehicle parked outside. The youths wore what appeared to be blood-spattered clothing. The neighbor retrieved a firearm and confronted the interlopers. They were held at gunpoint until police arrived. The teens had run away from a juvenile rehabilitation camp just two days before. They had broken into the cabin and brutally murdered the elderly couple staying there before the armed citizen was able to stop them.
-The Kansas City Star, Springfield, MO

 
A man in his early 30s entered Armen’s House of Music one afternoon, looked around and left. He returned just a few minutes later with a wooden club and began attacking the owner’s wife, Sylvia Armen, who was working in the store at the time. The owner, Alfred Armen, heard the commotion and ran to his wife’s aid. He tried to defend his wife and fought with the suspect before shooting him to death.
-WTAE.com, Bethel Park, PA

 
After confronting a man lurking in his front yard the previous morning, Clint Lowery called police a second time when the same man tried to gain entry by forcing open the door to his home. With his 2-year-old daughter sleeping inside, Lowery did what he had to do to ensure his family’s safety. Lowery met the intruder on the front porch with a 12-ga. shotgun and held him there until police arrived.
-Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles, WA

 
A pregnant Texas woman was home alone when she heard someone banging loudly on her front door. She didn’t answer the door. While the first suspect was banging on the front door a second was breaking in through the back door. The woman grabbed her husband’s .40 S&W handgun and called 911. When the intruders saw she was armed they fled to their car.
-Gunssavelives.net, Palmview, TX

 
Richard Duffy, 48, and his son were watching TV when an intruder broke down their front door. After a brief altercation the intruder was fatally shot, according to a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Another man waited in a car, but fled after he heard the gunshots.
-TheBlaze.com, Rome, ME

 
At approximately 11 p.m., a resident responded to the sound of an intruder entering his home. A 21-year-old man had used a shovel to break through a back window and enter the residence. The resident retrieved a firearm and shot down a hallway toward the intruder. The intruder, who already had a long list of previous offenses, was struck and later pronounced dead. The homeowner was reportedly not injured during the home invasion.
-The Post & Courier, Orangeburg, S.C.

 
A 56-year-old man heard the doorbell ringing at his home just before 1 p.m. When the homeowner failed to recognize the man outside his door, he ignored it. A few moments later, the suspect threw an object through a glass front door and entered the home. The homeowner responded to the sound and the two men struggled. The homeowner pulled out his handgun and fired twice, striking the intruder in the shoulder. A delivery truck driver saw the scuffle from outside, heard the shots and made the initial 9-1-1 call. The intruder was arrested after receiving medical treatment.
-The Issaquah Press, Issaquah, WA

 
Four teens on a crime spree forced their way into the home of 72-year-old Morris Reaves. Two of the teens wore ski masks and one wielded a rifle. Reaves heard the break-in take place and met the youths with his own firearm. Reaves fired two shots at the intruders causing them to flee to a nearby car and drive away. The four suspects were later identified from images taken by Reaves’ security camera. They were each arrested and charged with one felony count of kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy to commit burglary, breaking and entering a motor vehicle, larceny after breaking and entering, and misdemeanor assault by pointing a gun.
The Charlotte Observer, Lenoir, NC

 
In the main-stream media, when we hear about firearms, they are always in a bad context. The media seemingly salivates over reporting horrible tragedies when there is a gun involved because it helps them to demonize the gun rather than the psychopath that fired the gun. I hope that the personal accounts listed above will shed some light on the beneficial uses of a firearm.

When you are jerked awake at 2 a.m. by glass shattering of the window breaking (or door being kicked in) while a burglar enters your home… will the police get to your bedside before the burglar might?