Home invasions are on the rise, according to some sources.

Here’s one where a thug tried to take advantage of a senior, only to get his come-uppance (H/T to Jennifer Cruz, LRC blog):

“Last month, Frances Ward, 72, hired Richard Keese, 54, to fix her car last month, but when Keese showed back up at her house on Monday, he had ill intentions.

As Keese forced his way through the front door, Ward’s friend, who does not wish to be identified, grabbed a baseball bat for protection. But once inside the home, Keese simply snatched the bat from the friend and proceeded to beat her with it, throwing her up against a window and breaking the glass in the process.

But the 4-foot 10-inch tall Ward wasn’t about to stand by and watch her friend get beaten to death, so she grabbed her revolver and fired at Keese.

“If he hadn’t of been standing up, I would have hit him right here with the gun because I was aiming for his forehead to kill him, because he was beating the daylights out of her with that ball bat and I wasn’t going to let that happen,” the feisty grandmother told reporters.

When police arrived a few minutes later, they found Keese walking away from Ward’s home.

Both Keese and Ward’s friend were taken to a local hospital. The victim was treated for non-life threatening wounds and released the same day. Keese was treated and remained in police custody. It does not appear that Ward was injured during the incident.”

Comment:

Here’s a perfect example of when it’s correct to shoot to kill. Your target is actively trying to injure someone else.  The defense is proportional.

Especially when the victim is older or incapacitated, there is a good argument that he or she should try to kill, since the attacker is less likely to be able to escape.

But sometimes, killing might not be the best course of action.

I know someone who shot and killed a stranger who was in his garage. My friend was, naturally, afraid that the intruder was a criminal, but, it turned out the dead man was just homeless and looking for shelter.

That would have made me sick, but I don’t know if I’d have done anything different.

Home break-ins are simply a more dangerous type of confrontation than ones on the street.

At home, there is a presumption of safety and privacy. And there is a presumption that an uncalled-for entry is badly intended.

So, yes, shoot.  But always remember, the life that you take might be your own…

An intruder can always grab a gun and use it on you, as the man in the incident grabbed the lady’s bat and hit her.

Meanwhile, where are the feminists when you need them?

Elderly women being victimized, most often, by men. (See here and here and here).

Surely it’s a feminist issue.

Surely the thugs are relying on their physical strength and relying on their victim’s frailty.

And these are biological and gender-related, are they not?

How many forty-something women break into the homes of male seniors?

Not as many, I’m sure, although the phenomenon of girls-gone-wild extends to youthful female violence, where girl-gangs are now perpetrating mayhem on the populace.

Then, of course, there is the issue of race. 

How many of these home invasions are black-on-white?  Are these cases the overflow of  ghetto violence…or are they something else?

Naturally, newspapers don’t see fit to delve into such unseemly questions.

No, it’s enough that they report such incidents as “news”….then on to the next episode….

Next question, please….