“It was going to come down to just him and me.”

May I recommend that you stop over at the blog Shoved To Them (where do these interesting names come from?) and peruse THIS.

Here is an excerpt:

[My husband] worried about our safety, so he made sure that I had a gun and ammunition in case I should ever need them. You see, I’m not the biggest person ever. I’m right at 5′ 3″ and was tiny. If anything happened, there was no way for me to physically fight back and have much of a chance. The gun my husband put up on our closet shelf was an equalizer, because my husband knew I would need one.

I’m not going to pretend that I was at all pleased with the “gift” he gave me. I wasn’t thrilled to have a gun in the house with a small child. It’s not that I couldn’t handle a gun. (God golly, I grew up in Texas! I can hunt and shoot with the best of ’em! Like many Texas daddies, mine made sure that his daughter could change the tire on a car and drop a deer with a single shot!) I was irrationally afraid that my six month old would scale the walls, retrieve it from the shelf, be able to pull the trigger, and hurt herself. It was a bone of contention in our house until I needed it and then I sure was glad that my husband hadn’t listened to me.

There had been a couple of break-ins in our neighborhood in the preceding weeks. Whomever it was had clearly been watching his targets because the seemed to happen within minutes of the residents’ leaving their homes in the evening. The perpetrator either forced open back doors or he had cut the screens and gone in through a window.The houses were old, and many of the doors and windows were easy to jimmy open from the outside.

One evening around close on to midnight, my husband was at work, and I was up nursing the baby. I had just begun to doze off when I heard someone try knob on the back door. When he tried to shove the door in, I ran with the baby to my bedroom. I laid her on a blanket on my closet floor, and grabbed the shotgun off of my shelf. I knew that the person trying to get in wasn’t going to give me a chance to call 911 and wait for the police to arrive. It was going to come down to just him and me.

After his third try at the door, he went to the side of the house to the only window which was both low enough to reach and in the shadows enough to be hidden. I heard the screech of blade on glass as he started to cut the screen away. I exhaled in attempt to steady my breath and calm my racing heart. All I could think was that this son of a b$&@% wasn’t getting anywhere near my baby ….

[…]

Read the rest there.

I am glad to hear from and speak to gals who can defend themselves and their loved ones from vile aggressors.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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14 Comments

  1. MouseTemplar says:

    Well, here’s one. I have a S&W .38 snub nose, a CCW, and a range membership. I hope I never face a vile intruder, but will plug him [or her] if it comes to that. Then I’ll be nice and get him a priest.

  2. RANCHER says:

    In my rather lengthy law enforcement career (I’m old!) I have seen numerous instances in which the mere presence of a firearm in the hands of a potential victim has deterred an offender and avoided injury to either party. I have also had the great pleasure of racking a 12 gauge on many occasions and having previously non compliant suspects suddenly become very receptive to my commands. I would venture to say that most bad guys or gals (by no means all) seeing the business end of a firearm pointed at them will decide to cease and desist. A rather inexpensive lazer sight printing a red or green dot on the perp’s chest expedites compliance in a big way.

    My home defense guns are many, but the weapon of choice is a 12 ga. My on duty and off duty (CCW) weapons are 1911A1’s.

  3. St. Epaphras says:

    Just sent the link to this post to my daughter, a mother of three girls. She’s an excellent shot and has a gun and carry permit, but we all need the reminders of what could happen so we don’t get too comfortable. I guess we need to keep the plans for “what I would do if…” fresh in our heads so we don’t have to stop and think when the time comes.

  4. annmarie says:

    I had a similar experience. Home alone on a snowy night with three little ones and heard someone trying to open window. I got a shotgun my father had insisted I needed over my doubts and fears of ever being able to shoot any one. I called the police and stood at the wondow with the gun, ready to fire.

    At that moment I knew that I could and would shoot anyone who threatened my babies.

    I still have a humble thanks to my father who taught me that we girls were worth enough to defend ourselves.

  5. ReginaMarie says:

    The author of the above post that you linked, Rebecca Frech, has this to say about the name of her blog…http://shovedtothem.blogspot.com/2009/10/story-behind-name.html

    “One day God will have enough of your foolishness and demand that you hit your knees before Him. You can either do it willingly or He will put his hand upon your head and shove you to them.”-Marie Lane (my beloved Nanna, may she rest in peace)

  6. benedetta says:

    She sure is right here:

    “The problem of gun violence (and all violence) is the same problem as in euthanasia, abortion, and the death penalty. They are all points on the same spectrum of indifference. We have created a culture where other people are either convenient or not, human or not, worthy or not; and the ones in which we find no value are free for us to dispose of as we see fit. In such a world, it seems only prudent that those of us who value life would be willing to defend it, even if that makes academic type people uncomfortable.”

    The problem with throwing rhetorical or political energies behind the current “gun control” efforts is that these measures in the short term appease or even enable the root cause she names, and, given the currents at work presently, in the long term may wind up making innocent and law abiding citizens quite vulnerable.

    I have been, for most of my adult life, very much in favor of gun control measures, and generally opposed to the idea of private citizens owning weapons in their homes, and I recoil as I am sure all Americans do at the horrible situations of mentally disturbed young white males from broken homes going out to slaughter people just going about their lives. Males in my family did hunt for sport.

    However after experiencing certain things in the past year and reflecting upon it, I have become convinced of the Founders’ wisdom in specifically setting forth the 2nd Amendment and I see once again that it is a timeless right for citizenry, with solid reasoning applicable to our times. I see now that it is important to withstand the attempt to use the horrible violence of these mass killings to quickly render the 2nd Amendment impotent and meaningless. Especially for the next generations, for their benefit.

    To me, the preoccupation with passing gun control measures belie a dysfunction and denial at work in the nation as a whole that is unable to meaningfully talk about or acknowledge the sort of culture we have become. This to me is suspect, rings hollow, lacks credibility. If at least we could together name the situation openly that would at least be a start. But a conversation that focuses on purchasing weapons without looking seriously at the situations these young people were raised in, or the lack of support they received, or the deprivation of religious faith, or the coarse media and consumerist currents they were subjected to, just off the top of the situations, is to attempt to work around the omni present elephant in the room.

    In NYS this past week, a measure proposing to shoot children just a couple weeks away from birth, in the heart, by a non physician, was thankfully voted down in the legislature. This bill had been pushed at least three times over the past year. This is already past the roughly half of all babies in NYC of color that are lost to prebirth violence.

    Even though we cannot see, hear or touch him, a baby in his mother’s womb can very much feel pain. It is intuitive enough for us to know this on our own but of course science bears this out. Young people today who are told in their public school Planned Parenthood programs, or by parents, or by pastors or people working with or for the church, that this is acceptable, are psychically and spiritually traumatized, laboring under the party lines that we have all been fed and at the same time the voice of God, of love for humanity, of conscience, lurks somewhere rejected and despondent. It is no wonder that they are unable to trust, anyone. It is no wonder that some go quite beserk with violence upon other humans.

    The piecemeal politics we are forever as Catholics flirting with are nothing but appeasement. Even a child can tell you, not in so many words, but in essence, that any conversations about this or that initiative to help human beings order their lives with one another that fails to name the root cause in our times is a gross denial. I choose not to support political efforts that just feed into this denial.

    And no, this does not mean that one is making “an idol” of prolife.

  7. Lucas says:

    Good for her, BUT, she still could have called 911, most phones have a speakerphone feature.

    My wife is in law enforcement(10 years now!) and she also recommended that the person calls 911, and if there is a speakerphone you could put it on the counter or wherever and still be cocked and locked.

  8. Kathleen10 says:

    When one is a member of the NRA, the organization that is most resistant to “gun control” measures, one gets, besides the satisfaction of knowing one is supporting our Second Amendment rights, a subscription to a periodical. In the one I receive, there is a monthly column about regular citizens across America, who used their weapons to save their own lives or someone else’s. I often wish everybody could read these stories, because they are real eye openers, just as the story above is. It is all too real. Without guns to protect ourselves, many innocent people, including the elderly or children, would suffer God knows what, and then be killed. Our permits to carry or own are what keeps even these numbers down, but if criminals knew they would be unimpeded, and people were not allowed to own or carry, it would be much, much worse. American criminals are aware many people own guns and it makes them think twice unless they are too out of it to think. They enjoy the easy victim, naturally. Ironically, the criminals don’t want to get shot! They don’t mind inflicting any number of things on their neighbor, but when it comes to their own personal safety, suddenly they care deeply.
    Another reason to scrutinize who you vote for this November and in 2016. Elections matter. We need people in office who appreciate and respect the rights our Founding Fathers gave us, and we must never give them up.

  9. AvantiBev says:

    I was delighted to find Ms. Frech’s insightful article on the web yesterday.

    I was disgusted, angered but not surprised to learn a certain blog seems to be – ahem- “enjoying” the “blame the victim” meme concerning Fr. Terra’s gun being used to kill young Father Walker. The commenters at that blog exhibited all the good sense and compassion of the people I heard blame the victims of increased rapes in the 1970’s and 1980’s with phrases such as “Why was she walking there? Why did she park in that neighborhood? She was just asking for it working the late shift, wearing a short skirt, etc.”

    I blame any and all who succumbed to the romantic notion that ALL people can be rehabilitated.

  10. MarkG says:

    I’ve had a concealed weapons permit for over 20 years now. I rarely carry, but have in so if I ever carry there won’t be a question that I’m legal.

    In the home, I’m not against having firearms, but would suggest a couple of other things to think about in addition to firearms:

    TASERs are a great complement or replacement to firearms. TASERs are rarely lethal if misused, a fraction of the cost of a handgun, and most cops use them as a first resort before a handgun where possible.

    There are really cheap camera systems (Fry’s, etc) that usually have 4 or 8 cameras and a 4 or 8 channel DVR that can record weeks of video before recycling and overwriting, and most allow remote viewing over the internet. Just the presence of such a system with visible cameras will usually cause most thieves to move on. I think it would be great if every Church provided such a system to every rectory. It’s not a bad idea for every home to have such a system since they are so cheap now. As a side note, you can buy fake cameras which prominently displayed will usually make most thieves move on.

  11. AnAmericanMother says:

    Very good – especially the link of defense of family with pro-life.
    I may have told this tale before, but when I was around 12 years old and still living at home, I heard a noise at my bedroom window late one night. I thought it was my sister playing a prank – but when I tiptoed up to the curtain and peered under it, there was a total stranger standing outside with something (a pry bar?) in his hands. I edged to the door and kept my nerve to the top of the stairs, but then I broke and ran the rest of the way, screaming, “Daddy! Daddy! There’s a man on the back balcony!” Dad (who had been shooting crows) grabbed up his daddy’s old Parker double barrel and rounded the corner of the house just in time to see the man jump from the 2nd floor balcony. He caught him with the choke barrel in the air and the scatter barrel when he hit the ground. Fortunately for Mister Burglar, it was only No. 5 and at extreme range – he let out a shriek and high-tailed it off into the rainy dark. Dad (charitable dad) went out looking for him in case he’d broken his neck . . . didn’t find him. We are pretty sure it was a local crazy man (we have them in the South, don’t know if other regions have them – pitiable characters but occasionally dangerous) who was usually seen just walking the roads waving his arms around and talking to himself – but had never so far as we knew undertaken to try to break into a house before.
    In any event, he was scared away from doing whatever he had come to do (and hopefully from trying it again), and instead of being terrorized or worse by a lunatic I was secure and happy in the knowledge that my Dad had the will and the means to protect me from the evil people in the world.
    And ultimately that’s what it’s all about – ” to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects ” means having the means to be so.

  12. AnAmericanMother says:

    Oh . . . and by the way, Atlanta’s Finest showed up FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER – my mom had called the emergency number as soon as I screamed. I guess they figured there was no hurry.

  13. BLB Oregon says:

    I have heard a sheriff say that citizens ought to have a place to hide and in it a shotgun sawed off as short as is legal. Let them have your stuff if they want it–“him that taketh away from thee thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also”– but if they come after you, then as soon as you are certain it is not a relative or some drunk who has his house number wrong, let them have it.

  14. There is an old adage that, when something is going down, call the police, your lawyer and then order a pizza. Then see who will get there first.

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