Phillip Ramsey was drinking coffee in his kitchen when there was a knock at the door. “I didn’t recognize him and I didn’t answer the door,” Ramsey recalled. Shortly thereafter a second unknown man knocked at the door. When Ramsey didn’t answer, the man circled toward the rear of the house. Ramsey heard glass breaking and grabbed his 9 mm pistol, which he usually stores in the bedroom. “For some reason, I had it with me in the kitchen today,” he said. “God must have been watching out for me.” Ramsey called 9-1-1 and when he got to his bedroom, the man was getting off the bed below a broken window. Ramsey held the suspect at gunpoint until police arrived. Following the incident he offered the following safety advice to fellow citizens: “Get a gun and learn how to use it.” (The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C., 8/31/11)
The Armed Citizen Extra
(The following account did not appear in the print version of American Rifleman.)
After placing an ad on Craigslist to sell his iPhone and getting an offer, a Tacoma, Wa., man went to meet the potential buyers near a local mall. But the so-called buyers-two teenage boys-had another plan. As the owner was showing the teens the phone, one of them grabbed it and the other shoved the man to the ground and then took off running. Grabbing his gun that he is licensed to carry, the man demanded that the boys stop. He held them at gunpoint until police arrived. (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA, 07/03/10)
From The Armed Citizen Archive
October 1979: After being robbed the previous night, Indianapolis, Ind., motel manager, Mike Murray surprised three early morning burglars in the process of removing a TV set from one of the motel units. Murray halted the three and held them at shotgun point until police could take them into custody. (The Star, Indianapolis, Ind., 7/16)