Samuel Colt, The Great Equalizer

Both Ambulance Driver and The Big Guy sent me links to this story:

Mother kills armed home intruder in Carrollton area

New Orleans - A 30-year-old mother killed a man who entered her house and pulled out a handgun while the woman's three children were at home, according to New Orleans police.

The shooting happened around 7 p.m. in the 1700 block of Cambronne St. The assailant has been identified as 21-year-old Melvin Plummer, according to the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office.

You threaten the cubs, mama bear will kill your stupid ass DEAD. As with most DGC stories, the reporting is pretty scarce, but it sure sounds like John Q. Dirtbag walked in, figured he had an easy mark, drew his gun, and proceeded to have the ever-lovin' snot drilled out of him by a woman with a gun and the willingness to use it. The anti-gun forces would much rather she be at the goblin's mercy, with her young children left to wonder what's going to happen to them as the young predator finishes whatever he had planned.

Instead, he winds up bleeding out on the carpet. Victim selection fail, and all that. I'd much rather she need a dry cleaning service than rape counseling or a mortician, thank you very much. You've got to wonder what he had planned - the invasion happened at 7PM at night, so he had to have some inkling that people would be home. Was he going to kill everyone in the house? Have his way with the young mother? Threaten the kids?

That's the one major flaw with the "your stuff isn't worth killing someone over" line of thinking. You have no way of knowing what's going on inside the head of the person standing in your foyer with a crowbar in his hand and a pile of broken glass at his feet. Maybe he's got five starving kids at home and just wants a few boxes of pasta - or maybe he's a junkie looking for stuff to steal and pawn for his latest fix. Maybe he'll run at first sight of you - or maybe he'll bash your head in so there's no witnesses.

I know one thing for certain: I'll put my trust in Mssrs. Smith & Wesson over a goblin's intentions any day of the week.

Dead Goblin Count: 145

That is all.