"And the guy said, 'Is that pistol loaded?' I said, 'Of course it is. It's ready for you. It's ready for you, honey."I love this quote so much - I hope if I ever have to pull a gun on someone, I have the wherewithal to come up with a clever line like that. Good for her! Women and the elderly are victimized so frequently, especially when they live alone. Having a gun in the house for protection just makes sense.
However, shooting a man just for looking at your jewelry box has the potential to get you into all sorts of trouble, scrappy widow or not.
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A few years ago in East St. Louis a man attempted to break into an elderly woman's(she was in her 80s)home. She had been repeatedly victimized and her daughter gave her a pistol (a .380 if memory serves). Bad Guy shows up and attempts to rip the iron bars off her door to get in. She shoots through the door and calls the police. The 911 tape is priceless as she said to the effect..
"I just shot a man on my porch." DISPATCH: "Do you know where he is?"
"Yes I know. He's dead on my porch come pick him up."
End call.
I've lived in NY and TX and cannot believe the difference between states and their laws on defense.
In NY I was required to flee in lieu of protecting my property unless a reasonable NewYoker (the law assumes both that they are many and that they are predictable) would have perceived a deadly threat to my family.
Texas rightly discourages such a false distinction between life and property, and it discourages mind-reading. Here we can shoot someone for taking property and refusing to stop on command... theft is harder to prove if you get a free chance to run away with the evidence.
The lady doesn't know the law very well. Shooting a man in the absence of evidence of a life-threatening would get her prison time, old or not.
I live in Texas as well...I would not shoot someone for property theft, only for a life threatening situation.
I live in Texas too, and anyone who steals my property is stealing a piece of my life and deserves to be killed for it.
My favorite "little old lady" story happened in Colorado Springs about 1999. An elderly widow heard a strange noise in the middle of the night. She switched on her bedside light. There was a man standing in her bedroom. He was wearing a ski mask. In one hand he had a big knife, and in the other a roll of duct tape. She shot him three times with a .38. He survived, and when the cops ran his DNA they found it matched the DNA found at two recent rapes and an attempted kidnapping. So this lady did all womankind a big favor, and it's a pity that the first victim didn't shoot the guy.
Beware of little ol ladies, they ARE armed and CAN shoot! My Mother carried a .38 Colt Agent in her purse until the day she died.
AND she could and did shoot it for "practice".
"However, shooting a man just for looking at your jewelry box has the potential to get you into all sorts of trouble, scrappy widow or not."
That depends. If he is carrying bacon she could always claim the guy was trying to pork her.
:-)
Joe
Joe-
GROAN!
Alan-I understand your position, but my fear (for me) is that a prosecutor wouldn't. And I don't have the money for a lawyer.
Not the same as making the great comment directly to the bad guy, but I had fun the other day...
My way better half and I were eating out and a guy came in and started being very belligerent to the someone on the phone and to the workers. We were just about done anyway, so my sweetie said something about wanting to get out before the guy went postal. My response to her?
"Good idea. With the price of ammunition these days, I'd hate to have to use any."
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