It was just after midnight last Wednesday when Susan Buxton realized all was not well in her Arlington, Texas home.  The 66-year old was getting ready to let her dogs out before she went to bed when she noticed her 28-year old granddaughter was still awake.  “I asked her, ‘What are you doing up?’ and she says, ‘Gigi, I heard glass breaking.’”

That didn’t raise too many alarm bells for the grandmother, but when she discovered a muddy footprint on her back porch, she knew someone was in the house.  Luckily, Susan Buxton wasn’t alone.  Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson have been Susan Buxton’s constant companions for the past twelve years, ever since a stranger tried to abduct another granddaughter from her front yard. 

So, armed with her .38 and a flashlight, Susan Buxton went through every room in her home.  Just like in the movies, it wasn’t until she had searched every room that she knew where the intruder was.  Hiding in her closet in her art room, Christopher Lessner saw the door swing open.  He looked at her and whispered, “Shhhh”. 

Buxton was having none of it.  Pointing her pistol at the intruder, she told him to get down on the floor.  Then she yelled for her granddaughter to call police.  When Lessner tried to grab the gun, Susan Buxton shot him.  He fled the home, bleeding from the leg, and Susan Buxton shot at him again.  This time she missed.  Police later found him cowering under a neighbor’s backyard deck. 

Half a country away and just twenty four hours later, 60-year old Thomas Morganstern woke up to noises in his Roselle, Delaware home.  Unlike Susan Buxton, Morganstern didn’t have to go looking for the source of the noise.  When he opened his eyes he saw two strange men in his bedroom.  Morganstern grabbed a handgun and followed the pair as they ran down his stairs. 

In the living room, the two fired at Morganstern, missing him.  He returned fire, and hit both assailants.  They fled the house, and police found them hours later.  One was hiding near Morganstern’s detatched garage.  The other was lying under bushes across the street, dead. 

Just a day after Thomas Morganstern saved his life, , 65-year old Roland Burns woke up to find a stranger in his home in Rush, Kentucky.  He too grabbed a firearm.  He too told the intruder to leave.  And he too eventually had to defend himself when 32-year old Shannon Conley refused to obey that order.  According to Kentucky State Police Trooper Ed Ginter, “"Mr. Burns ordered the man to leave the home. A struggle ensued, and Mr. Conley was fatally wounded."

What chance would a 66-year old grandmother have against a bigger, stronger, man a third of her age?  What chance would a 60-year old man have against two men, armed and in their 20’s?  And what chance would a 65-year old have against a man half his age?  Without an equalizer, ,these individuals would have no chance.  Because that equalizer was a firearm, all three are alive today.  Continued...