According to wikpedia.org, Snow Camp, North Carolina is a small unincorporated community with a large Quaker population. It doesn’t seem the kind of place where violent crime would threaten innocent life. Then again, who knows? Snow Camp is surrounded by larger cities and even the smallest towns in America are home to drug abuse, and attendant crime. Like this [via wncn.com]:
Kirk Puckett, a spokesperson for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office, said two sisters, 12 and 13, were inside the home when they heard knocking on the front door.
Puckett said when they looked outside, they saw three unfamiliar men. He said the older sister grabbed her dad’s rifle.
The suspects then broke in through the back door. Puckett said the 13-year-old pointed the rifle at them, causing them to run away without taking anything.
Neighbors praise the teen for her quick thinking.
“I am in awe of that young lady,” Jackie Garrison said. “To have had that kind of thoughtfulness going on in a time of crisis in her head to where that’s what she did, instead of running and hiding. She probably stopped something major from going on.”
At the risk of losing my PC credentials, Ms. Garrison ain’t whistlin’ Dixie. Three men breaking into a home with two teenage girls is a recipe for unthinkable atrocity. Only it is thinkable — by anyone who understands the value of hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. Including teaching their children how to react in an emergency.
While supporting the armed self-defender’s actions and satisfied with the outcome, the sheriff’s spokesperson was a bit circumspect about the teen’s methodology.
Puckett believes the girls had been taught how to react in a situation like that one. He said how one handles something like that is a matter of personal preference.
“There’s a school of thought where folks will say, ‘I’m armed, and if someone comes in my house someone is going to get shot or die,’” Puckett said. “There’s the other school of thought to retreat. Where someone would retreat out of another exit. Go into another room and barricade themselves.”
With a gun.