September 20, 2010
*A man, his wife and his school-age brother were asleep in their apartment when an intruder forced his way inside. Illegally wielding a gun, the suspect ordered the tenants into the bathroom. The male tenant asked to retrieve a blanket—a ruse to go get his pistol.
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August 20, 2010
*A 15-year-old boy was alone in his mother’s apartment when he heard a strange sound. Upon glancing into the living room, he discovered a masked man armed with an illegally possessed firearm. Police said the boy fled to his mother’s bedroom and grabbed a .22-cal.
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July 14, 2010
*In February an NRA-supported federal law went into effect permitting people who may legally carry firearms to do so in many previously gun-free national parks. Three months later, a backpacker chose to exercise the new right while hiking in Alaska’s Denali National Park.
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June 23, 2010
*When Michael Lish returned home to find the back door and a window ajar, he entered cautiously with his handgun for protection. As he inspected his home, a man dressed in dark clothing and wielding a sword sprung out at him. Police say the burglar threatened Lish and walked toward him. Lish fired a shot, wounding the burglar who fell to his knees. The burglar reached behind his back in an apparent attempt to grab another weapon, forcing Lish to fire two more shots, killing him. The burglar, who was on probation at the time of his death, was also carrying two illegally possessed guns, a knife and a stun gun. (Tulsa World, Tulsa, OK, 04/03/2010)
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May 20, 2010
*Police said that early one morning, an armed suspect burst into a home office in an area described by one resident as "a quiet neighborhood." Hearing the burglar, the resident quickly armed himself with a firearm. When the burglar approached, the resident feared for his life and shot the suspect, killing him. "I'm not for someone being shot," said Nora Dietz, a concerned neighbor, "but you have to protect yourself." (The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, MD, 3/29/10)
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April 14, 2010
*When he was awakened by his home security system, NRA Endowment member Steve Bason prepared for the worst—he got his Benelli M1 12-ga. shotgun, while his wife, Beth, an NRA Life member, grabbed her Glock 9 mm pistol. "At first we figured it was just another false alarm," Bason told the editor of the "Armed Citizen." "Then a light came on in our barn and I thought, 'My goodness, this is real!'" Police say the couple cautiously approached the barn. They peered inside and found a man standing next to Bason's truck with the door open. "There was some yelling and we probably said some words that aren't fit for print," Bason recalled. The suspect quickly found himself staring down the barrels of two different guns and waited patiently for police. (The Express, Lock Haven, PA, 02/02/10)
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March 17, 2010
*NRA member Robert Cole and his wife, Pam, had just started to doze off one evening when they heard breaking glass and their motion detector alarm as it went off. Then Cole heard someone in the living room. “I woke my wife up and told her we had someone in the house, and she told me to grab the shotgun,” he remembered. Police said he peered out the bedroom door and saw a man in the living room holding a fire extinguisher. “I was worried he was going to hurt me or my wife so I [fired] one round of No. 6 shot,” Cole said. Police arrested the wounded suspect and an alleged accomplice nearby. This wasn’t Cole’s first act of armed citizenry. He was involved in an incident that appeared in this column in December 2004. (North Channel Sentinel, Pasadena, Texas, 01/07/10)
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February 22, 2010
*Criminal justice instructor Michael Minto was exiting the Kaplan Career Institute when he saw a man being viciously stabbed. According to police, Minto ran onto the scene, drew a handgun for which he has a permit to carry and ordered the attacker to drop the knife.
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January 21, 2010
*When a woman knocked on the door, Donald Kaighn--an NRA member, World War II veteran and gun collector--opened it. Her car had broken down so Kaighn allowed the woman inside to use the phone, a favor she returned by spraying the 84-year-old's face with lighter fluid and hitting him in the head with the can. Kaighn grabed a Colt .32-cal. pistol while his assailant ran upstairs. He confronted her. "She said something like 'Stop or I'll shoot,'" Kaighn explained. "I immediately fired the gun." The woman briefly returned fire before leaping from the second story window with some of Kaighn's possessions. "I'm a member of the NRA and I subscribe to its policy of not being a vicitim," Kaighn said. "I don't want to hurt anybody." (WPVI-ABC6, Philadelphia, PA, 12/01/09)
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December 18, 2009
Studies indicate that firearms are used over 2 million times a year for personal protection, and in many instances, their presence prevents crime.
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