NEWS

A 29-year-old woman was in her Sequim, Wash., home with her young children early one Sunday morning when she heard someone attempting to break in.  Not waiting for her suspicions to be confirmed, the woman quickly put into action an effective plan for the defense of herself and her family.  First, she summoned help by calling authorities with her cell phone.  Then, gathering her children, she retreated to the bedroom where she armed herself with a 9mm handgun.  Meanwhile, the home invader had come inside and was making his way to the bedroom.  That's when his plans were derailed.  His intended victim confronted him with the business end of the handgun, sending him fleeing from the premises.  Police later cought and arrested the man.  Thanks to the woman's quick thinking, none of the home's occupants was harmed.
(Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles, Wash., 1/26/99)

This news story is a great example of many things, although I will just mention three of them.

1) The woman had a plan to protect herself and her family against some animal that might try to harm them, which proved in this case to be very effective.  Please have a plan for your family and if you don't practice it at least talk about it with your family so everybody knows what to do.  This is not only true for a home invader but also fire, tornado, earthquake, flood or any other potential situations that would jeopardize the safety of your family.  Things can be replaced but the loss of a loved one is for a lifetime.

2) The woman had the 9mm handgun.  This gave her the means to protect her and her family effectively no matter how much force the intruder was ready to use.  If someone is willing to enter an occupied home then we need to realize that this person is a threat to not just our possessions but also our lives. 

3) The woman correctly planned on the police not getting there in time to protect her and her family from this home invader.  She did exactly the right thing by calling them early in the situation, though.  The reason for this is so they can either collect this animal from off the floor or try to catch, cage and convict him/her so as not to be able to terrorize another family anytime in the near future.