The upside of gun ownership

Stuff reports:

When New Zealander Troy Skinner showed up at a 14-year-old girl’s US house, he allegedly claimed he was a hitchhiker who needed help. …

“His arrival here was totally unexpected by anyone.

“He had been told in the past that the daughter no longer wished to communicate with him.”

The Goochland County sheriff said Skinner bought a knife and duct tape from Walmart after arriving in the US. 

This could have been very nasty for the 14 year old. I think he had pepper spray also. Potentially he was going to kill or rape her.

The girl’s mother saw a man trying to enter her home, warned him several times she had a gun, then fired after he broke the glass on the second door he tried to open. 

Skinner was struck in the neck and remains hospitalised, authorities say.

I bet you the mother is a fan of the 2nd amendment. If she wasn’t armed, who knows what the outcome would have been.

That isn’t an argument against sensible gun laws. But it is hard for us in NZ to realise how much comfort many Americans have in being able to possess and use guns for self defence.