Keeping guns in a home with children is inherently dangerous. You’re just asking for trouble; accidents, murder, suicide, termites, billowing clouds of radon, the heartbreak of psoriasis. We know this because our friends at the Brady Campaign tell us so. Ad nauseum. What they don’t seem to mention is that if you bother to teach your children to respect and use firearms properly, instead of an accident waiting to happen, a gun is a tool that will allow a family member to protect him or herself along with other family members. That’s a lesson a 14 year-old in Phoenix seemed to absorb pretty effectively . . .
He was home Friday afternoon looking after his three younger siblings when, according to foxnews.com, he heard a knock at the door. But he didn’t open the door because he didn’t recognize the woman on the other side – exactly what you’d want your kid to do when home alone.
Soon after, the teen heard a bang on the door, rushed his siblings upstairs and got a handgun from his parent’s bedroom. When he got to the top of the stairs, he saw a man breaking through the front door and point a gun at him.
The boy shot the 37-year-old man, who is in critical condition but expected to survive and be booked into jail.
Besides doing a helluva job training the kid in how to stay safe while home alone, the boy’s parents can count themselves lucky that they didn’t choose to live in, say, California where allowing a child under 18 access to a gun is a felony.
(Police Officer James) Holmes hailed the teen’s actions and his parents for teaching the kids to never open the door to strangers.
“The police and indeed our community does not ever want to see a situation where a teenager of that age has to take a weapon to protect his family … but this young man did exactly what he should have done,” he said. “I’m not sure he gave full thought about what he had to do. He just acted.
[H/T Allen V]