The Hi-Point 995 is not a thing of beauty.

It is a relatively ugly and inexpensive pistol-caliber carbine that won’t impressed your friends at the gun range, but then, it isn’t supposed to. The short rifle—deemed an “assault weapon” under absurd new guns laws in New York and Connecticut, though legal everywhere else—can typically be purchased new for around $300, which puts it firmly in the market for those needing a self-defense arm on a tight budget.

The carbine was just what a Detroit mother needed Monday night to defend her two children the moment three home invaders kicked in her door:

A Detroit mother opened fire Monday night when three suspects broke into her home.

Surveillance cameras caught it all.

The mother tells Action News she “didn’t have time to get scared.” When she heard the door to her home on Woodrow Wilson being kicked in, she immediately warned the three teenage intruders and then opened fire.

One of the teens dropped a handgun on his way out the door. He then tried to get back inside the house a second time, but was again met with gunfire. Once again, he took off and all three were arrested shortly after the incident by Detroit Police.

Firearms are tools. How they are used depends entirely upon the user.

The three teen-aged thugs in this incident hoped to use their gun to overpower a family and rob them at gun point. This mother had her own gun, absurdly labeled as an “assault weapon” by power-mad politicians, that she used to stop that attack and defend her family.

Once again, bad people with guns were thwarted by a good person with a gun. It would be nice if the media would being reporting the truth that this is the rule, not the exception.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig supports the role of armed citizens fighting crime. Hopefully police chiefs and legislators in other parts of the nation can learn from his recent conversion.