Rule Four of gun safety has always been dead simple: Always be sure of your target.

Unfortunately, an Army wife failed to follow that basic rule this morning in Fayetteville, NC, and almost turned herself into a widow:

A woman accidentally shot her husband Friday morning after he unexpectedly returned home and set off the house alarm, Fayetteville police said.

The man, a Fort Bragg soldier, was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest.

The incident happened about 10:15 a.m. at the couple’s home on Christian Street in Fayetteville.

Investigators said Tiffany Seguel, 27, set the house alarm after her husband, Zia Seguel, 27, left for work. He unexpectedly returned home with breakfast, setting off the alarm.

Instead of going to work at Fort Bragg, Mr. Seguel went get his wife breakfast from a local restaurant.

When he came back the alarm went off, notifying Mrs. Seguel that someone was in the home. She armed herself.

When Mr. Seguel touched the door handle to their bedroom, Mrs. Seguel fired a single shot through the door that struck him in the chest*.

The couple is extremely fortunate; the bullet that struck Mr. Seguel in the chest only did “superficial damage,” and he will be released from the hospital today. He will hopefully remember to call Mrs. Seguel before unexpectedly showing up at home.

The neighborhood where the couple resided has apparently been on edge lately thanks to a rash of break-ins, and Mrs. Seguel thought she was firing at a home invader.

It is brutally obvious that Mrs. Seguel needs to spend some time at a good basic defensive shooting course and the couple needs to set up a home defense plan before she even thinks about touching a firearm again. If the every have children (a “flock of Seguels?”), they will likewise need to know their role in the home defense plan as well.

Everyone in your family that might reasonably be called upon to use a gun in self-defense has basic defensive gun training and knows the home defense plan by heart… right?

* Obviously, none of this would have happened if he had been wearing his reflective safety belt.