The Armed Citizen® August 19, 2011

Robert Parsley was watching television one evening when he heard a noise outside. He quickly grabbed his Smith & Wesson Model 360 revolver chambered in .357 Mag. to investigate. The doorbell rang several times. Parsley looked out the window and saw a man tugging on the locked screen door. Holding the gun behind his back, he turned on the porch light and asked the young man what he was doing. He claimed his wife was in labor, and heavily perspiring, he said that he needed help. But Parsley found the man’s story suspicious. His instincts were correct: Earlier that evening the man stole an excavator and used it to severely damage a church. Parsley lowered the gun, bringing it into view. “Sorry for waking you!” the young man said as he ran off. Two police cruisers pulled up with their spotlights on searching for a suspect. Parsley told them in what direction the suspect had run and they found him breaking into a nearby home. (WTVD-ABC, Raleigh, NC, 05/20/11)

Armed Citizen Extra

(The following account did not appear in the print version of American Rifleman.)

When a female grocery store clerk saw three teenage boys takesome potato chips from the store without paying, she demanded that they immediately return the food. Two of the teens gave the chips back, but the other refused. Then he pulled a gun, aimed it at the clerk and threatened to shoot. The clerk then pulled her own gun and shot the teen in the buttocks. Police said they would seek robbery charges upon the boy's release from the hospital. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, MO, 11/24/10)

From The Armed Citizen Archive

August 1976: A ringing doorbell woke Monte Scales in his Austin, Texas, apartment. As he rose from bed, he heard what sounded like a key being inserted into the lock, then saw a man armed with a butcher knife and a screwdriver standing in the doorway. Scales threw an ashtray at the man and reached for a gun. The intruder fled. (The Austin American-Statesman, Austin, Tex.)