James Jackson, a 73-year-old Air Force veteran, was at home with his wife and grandson when he heard the sound of a picture window breaking. He armed himself with his Taurus .380 ACP handgun and investigated the noise. Encountering a strange man inside his home, he fired a single round at the 29-year-old intruder. After being treated at the hospital for a bullet wound, the suspect was upgraded to fair condition. Reportedly the suspect has not yet been charged. Neither Jackson nor his family was harmed. (Omaha World Herald, Omaha, NE, 8/27/14)
The Armed Citizen® Extra
4/6/15
When two male burglars broke a window and made entry into a residence in Kalamazoo County, Mich., they had no idea that they had targeted the home of a public safety officer, or that his wife was home at the time and was prepared for them. The woman, armed with a firearm, encountered the intruders in her living room and repeatedly yelled for them to leave. When one of the men ignored her warning and advanced toward the homeowner, she fired one shot at him, striking him in the shoulder. The wounded man was arrested at the scene and was treated at a local hospital for a non-life-threatening injury. His accomplice fled the scene on foot, but was quickly apprehended by law enforcement. Both men have been charged with first-degree home invasion. (Kalamazoo Gazette, Kalamazoo, MI, 2/22/15)
From The Armed Citizen® Archives
November 1959
Two gunmen kidnapped an Eclectic, Ala., town policeman and used the officer to gain admittance to the home of Carl Ray Barker in the early morning hours. Barker, an Eclectic banker, was taken by one gunman into town to open the bank’s vault, his wife, child and the town policeman being held hostage by an armed companion pending a safe return from the bank. When the time-vault resisted opening, the gunman returned Barker to his house and, after some debate, took the policeman away with him to get some tape for binding all the hostages until morning, when another attempt was to be made on the vault. Barker, now held in his home with wife and child by the second armed man, asked if he could make coffee. The robber assented and Barker put water on the stove and got it boiling. “I took the scalding water to the living room,” said Barker. “When he held up his cup, I just poured the water in his face and grabbed his gun.” Barker then pistol-whipped the robber into submission, loaded a shotgun and waited for the return of the other bandit. When the door opened, the captive policeman dived out of the way and Barker killed the would-be bank robber with two blasts. Barker said he feared for his family’s safety and, “I didn’t want my bank to get a bad name about being robbed.” (United Press International)
