Check this out. An 85-year-old woman stopped a punk from robbing her—with a .22 pistol.
LAKE LYNN, Pa. — An 85-year-old great-grandmother from Lake Lynn, Fayette County kept an alleged burglar at bay using a .22-caliber pistol.
According to police, a 17-year-old suspect was attempting to burglarize Leda Smith overnight.
That’s when Smith grabbed her gun and told the teen that she would shoot him if he moved, police said.
“I had the gun on him before he turned around and said, ‘you’ve had it,’ ” Smith told Channel 11-News.
According to police, Smith ordered the boy to dial 911 and then gave him some advice.
“Dial 911 and don’t attempt to throw the phone at me, or do anything bad or i’ll just shoot you,” Smith said.
When police arrived, they took the teen into custody.
Makes my .22 rifle seem a bit less of a toy and more of a serious weapon.
Indeed, no firearm is a toy. But in terms of causing incapacitation as fast as you can, there are better options then a .22.
No matter, as this “young” lady has shown; ANY gun is better in an emergency then a cop on the other end of the phone.
Good catch!
Comment by long_rifle — 08/19/2008 @ 9:57 pm
When the muzzle of a firearm is pointed at you, even a .22 looks like a cannon.
Comment by Michael Lonie — 08/19/2008 @ 10:09 pm
A .22 will kill you dead, if you get hit in the right spot. It will not, however, knock down a charging elephant.
Comment by Elisson — 08/19/2008 @ 10:57 pm
So, how often have you been in the same area as a charging elephant, Elisson?
Closest I’ve ever come to it is watching the elephant parade at a circus.
Comment by Meryl Yourish — 08/20/2008 @ 12:45 am
For an elephant, it’s true that you want something a tad larger than a .22, like a .458 rifle. A .50 Barrett might do also. But as Elisson said, a .22 in the right spot will kill a human. It was a .22 that Sirhan Sirhan used to kill RFK.
“When police arrived, they took the teen into custody.”
That must have been a relief for him.
Comment by Michael Lonie — 08/20/2008 @ 11:57 pm
It wa a .22 handgun that Sirhan used, not a rifle. Yes, a rifle is better than nothing, but at close quarters it is too easy for a no-goodnik to grab the barrel and wrestle the gun away (men usuzally have more upper body strenght than women) or just slip past the barrel and attack with their hands.
At close range, there’s something to be said for the .22 hadgun — almost no recoil and good ability to place shots accurately.
Comment by Yankev — 08/22/2008 @ 2:42 pm