Edit: And having a gun to protect yourself when anyone tries to kill you won't work out either. If you only have a gun to protect yourself, it'll be your first shot in your life. Guess who's more experienced and therefore quicker, you or the guy who want to shoot you?

Loganville, Georgia (CNN) -- This is not a movie. There's no dramatic music in the background. A happy ending, far from a guarantee.

The concern in Donnie Herman's voice was clear as day. So was his stress. With two telephones to his ear, he listened to his wife, Melinda, as she fled into an attic of their Loganville home. With her: Her two 9-year-old children and a loaded .38 revolver.

In the house: An intruder with a crowbar.

On another line was the 911 operator Donnie Herman had called for help. Herman's words to his wife, as he sat helplessly, an hour away from the home, were recorded.

"Stay in the attic," he instructed her, calmly.

"He's in the bedroom," she told him. He repeated the words to the 911 operator.

"Shh. Relax," Herman said, trying to calm his wife.

Then he instructed her to do what was fast becoming a realistic possibility.
"Melinda -- if he opens up the door, you shoot him! You understand?"

What happened next has made the Hermans the new faces of the right to bear arms.

Melinda Herman fired a six-shot revolver at the intruder, hitting him five times, in his torso and in his face. Surprisingly, he managed to flee.

Gun rights groups say this shows that law-abiding citizens should be allowed to buy their weapon of choice and as big a magazine or ammunition clip as they like.

They remind people that Melinda Herman had only a six-shot revolver.

"It's a good thing she wasn't facing more attackers. Otherwise she would have been in trouble and she would have run out of ammunition," said Erich Pratt, director of communications for the Gun Owners of America.

"She shot him five times and he still didn't drop. This is going to endanger people's safety."

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/10/us/home-invasion-gun-rights/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Click the link for the full story.


While this isn't a typical situation, this is part of why restricting magazine sizes at some of the figures being floated out there like 5 or 10 is potentially a bad idea, and why a peashooter is not always sufficient for self-defense. Heck, what if the guy's wearing body armor or is jacked up on crack or meth? Even in this case where the intruder didn't have a gun (which she had no way of knowing, and considering how many doors he broke down, he probably wasn't looking for the TV) he could have killed them with a crowbar after those 5 shots.

I really wouldn't be opposed to mandatory gun training of some sort, however anything substantial would be an uphill legal battle. As I mentioned early in the topic, I recognize that I shouldn't have a gun - I only wish everyone else had that sort of self-awareness.

Is that just for concealed carry, or for any ownership of a gun? I was not aware that you needed to undergo training to simply own a firearm.

I hate that term.

In some states, it's what having a handgun is called.. Not sure in Wisconsin. But in Minnesota, there's no such thing as conceal and carry, it's called a permit to carry. You do NOT have to conceal your weapon if you have your permit to carry, so yes.. you can actually have it holstered outside your shirt on your hip if you wanted. Not that it's recommended, but theoretically speaking.