Maria Puente

USA TODAY

Top Gun actress Kelly McGillis says she was attacked by a stranger in her North Carolina home last week, so she got a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

McGillis, 58, posted a long message on Facebook on June 17 explaining what happened when she returned to her Hendersonville, N.C., home (after a theological lecture about loving others) to find a light on and her front door unlocked.

She says she was confronted by a screaming woman who accused her of stalking her and attacked her when she ran outside to call 911. She and the woman fought; the woman grabbed her cellphone and threw it on the ground.

"I got worried that there may be someone else in the house with her. We have quite a few guns and lots of ammo and that's when I started to panic," McGillis wrote. "Thinking that if they have one of them I could be shot. I ran out the front door and called 911."

Local TV reports and People reported the Henderson County sheriff's office arrested and charged a 38-year-old woman, Laurence Marie Dorn, with second-degree burglary, misdemeanor larceny, misdemeanor stalking, assault and battery and interfering with emergency communication. She is being held in the Henderson County Jail under a $60,000 bond. There was no phone listing for her.

McGillis writes that she was left scratched and bruised but is otherwise OK. She says she got a concealed-carry gun permit to protect herself after the incident.

"They rushed me through the conceal and carry course so I am armed and ready," she posted Thursday. "The Henderson County Sheriff's department has been absolutely the greatest. Here's my first target practice. I only missed five from the center out of thirty rounds. All hit the target."

She expressed concern for a little girl who was with the woman.

"Mental illness takes many hostages. I don't know her name...but I would like to asked that you pray for her and her mother," McGillis wrote.

Later, she also posted a long essay on the reasons, including being the victim of other crimes, that she got a concealed-carry permit despite advice not to.

"For those of you on my feed that are telling me that getting a cc permit is not the best choice for me to make, well let me fill you in on a few things that have lead me to this decision. Which by the way, I have struggled over for a long long time. Not being pro gun fanatic. When I was 12 I was gang raped by three men."

The National Rifle Association cheered her on its Facebook page.

"Not willing to be a victim again, actress Kelly McGillis has decided to exercise her Second Amendment rights, and protect herself by getting a concealed carry permit," it said.

McGillis is best known for playing a flight instructor and Tom Cruise's love interest in 1986's Top Gun.

Contributing: The Associated Press