As I’ve mentioned before, while I’m a huge supporter of the Second Amendment, I’m no fan of guns and sincerely wish that owning one (or three) wasn’t a necessary responsibility, especially when you have a family. Here’s another reason why that’s the case:

[A] woman was working in an upstairs office when she spotted a strange man outside a window, according to Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman. He said she took her 9-year-old twins to a crawlspace before the man broke in using a crowbar.

But the man eventually found the family.

“The perpetrator opens that door. Of course, at that time he’s staring at her, her two children and a .38 revolver,” Chapman told Channel 2’s Kerry Kavanaugh.

The woman then shot him five times, but he survived, Chapman said. He said the woman ran out of bullets but threatened to shoot the intruder if he moved.

“She’s standing over him, and she realizes she’s fired all six rounds. And the guy’s telling her to quit shooting,” Chapman said.

If this story pans out, what you have is another Exhibit A to explain why owning a firearm and learning how to use it properly is so damned important. Does it sound to you like this guy was simply looking to rob the house? And even if he was, what would he have done had he found three defenseless witnesses who had seen his face?

This story is yet another example of how, in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, the entire debate surrounding guns has been turned on its head by Democrats and their media allies. What they are pushing for will only serve to make more of us — like this mother of two and the Sandy Hook Elementary students and staff — even more vulnerable to the wicked.

What should be obvious to anyone willing to put ideology aside in favor of what works, is that encouraging responsible citizens to arm themselves (after learning how to safely store and use a firearm) is the smartest, most effective, and most compassionate reaction to an act of evil we know no gun control law would have stopped.

The only thing I dread more than the thought of shooting someone is the thought of needing to shoot someone and being unarmed or out-gunned.

ADDED: A number of folks on Twitter are pointing out that unloading her gun on this intruder failed to kill him. Had she missed her shots or failed to bluff him with the empty gun, having only five rounds might have proved fatal. And yet, Democrats and their media allies want to restrict the number of rounds a magazine will carry.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC