ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Every day in this country hundreds or perhaps even thousands of attempted home invasions, burglaries, robberies and rapes are stopped by would-be victims with firearms. These are some of these incidents reported just last week. They are stories you won’t see on the national news, but stand as dramatic examples of the admonition that often the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Monday: A Pennsylvania man looking for an easy mark attacked the wrong woman in her own driveway at night. The would-be robber grabbed Emma Troutman as she was getting out of her car, slammed her head against the car’s window and demanded her money. Unfortunately for him, the innocent-looking mother of two small children is also a trained law enforcement officer who, when she opened her purse, grabbed her gun, swung around to confront the thug. On seeing the gun he took off running.

Tuesday: In Cleveland, an armed man entered a store, handed the owner a bag and ordered him to fill it with the money from the store’s cash register. The owner complied, but when the robber turned to leave, he grabbed an employee’s handgun from under the counter, ordered him to stop and, when the robber turned to shoot him, fired first. When the police arrived the robber was found on the ground with a leg wound and was hauled off to jail.

Wednesday: A Rigby, Idaho man pulled into his driveway and noticed that his garage door was open. At about the same time a noise inside the house woke his 17-year-old son from a sound sleep. The two were soon to learn that the noise was from a home invader who had entered through the garage, kicked in a door and was rummaging through the house. When the father and son realized the intruder was still in the house, the boy, a hunter, retrieved his shotgun from a closet and the two went from room to room looking for the intruder. When they found him in one of the bedrooms, the thug opened fire on the two of them and the boy shot the man who, wounded, was picked up and arrested by police. The boy may well have saved his father’s life as well as his own. His father said afterward, “He knows about guns. If he grabs a gun and loads it, he’s ready to shoot. I couldn’t be prouder of him.”

Thursday: A 73-year-old St. Louis man working in his garage at 4 o’clock in the afternoon was confronted by two armed thugs who entered the garage and held a gun to his head to rob him. Without hesitation and before the man with a gun to his head could react, the man grabbed his own gun and shot both robbers. When the police arrived both robbers lay dead on the garage floor with their gun at their side.

Friday: A 70-year-old Middletown, Ohio woman woke up in the early hours of the morning as a burglar was breaking into her home. Louise Jones made her way to the kitchen where she saw a man trying to get in through a window. She grabbed her gun, called 911 and began beating on the man’s arm with the butt of her handgun. “I don’t ever want to kill a person but if I have to, I will,” she told reporters later, “and I don’t believe that any woman or young girl that’s being attacked should run. I believe she should fight back.”

She didn’t have to use her gun because the thug, sensing what might come next, fled.

• Compiled by The Washington Times.

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