A Georgia man is lucky to be alive and likely regretting his decision to break into a home occupied by a mother and her two kids; a mom who also knows how to handle a firearm.

It was about 2 a.m. Wednesday morning when police say 36-year-old Chadwick Lyons broke into a home in a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood in LaGrange, Georgia. It’s unclear if Lyons had any accomplices who managed to escape, but authorities believe the homeowner was woken up by the sound of Lyons talking in the hallway outside of her bedroom.

“The homeowner confronted him. She had a handgun and she fired one round striking him in the lower abdomen,” says Sgt. Stewart Smith, Troup County Sheriff’s Office.

…

Rachael Kramer lives nearby, she says she would have done the same thing.

“It’s just me and Charlie, so if I her another voice in my home, I’m going to do the same thing. Shoot first and ask questions later,” says Kramer.

“You certainly have the right to have a gun in your home, the right to have gun on your person, the right to have gun in your car. It’s certainly your right to defend yourself in a situation like this,” says Smith.

It’s sad that Sgt. Smith even has to say that, but unfortunately we live in a world where some people want to force you to call 911 and wait for police to arrive instead of you being able to protect yourself and your kids from the intruders in your home. Then there are those who think it’s somehow unfair or unjustified to use deadly force against someone who’s broken into your home; that this mom should have somehow tried to gather her children together and flee her home while there were prowlers roaming the halls.

As for Mr. Lyons, it sounds like he’s going to recover from his injuries and will be facing charges (including burglaries of multiple vehicles in the neighborhood) once he’s released from the hospital. As I said, he’s lucky to be alive, and not just because his intended victim had a gun. After he was shot, Lyons apparently ran to a neighbor’s home and banged on the door for help. He should be counting his blessings that he didn’t get shot again, and I hope that his hospital and jail stay provide him with the time and motivation to turn his life around.

This is the second self-defense shooting by a LaGrange woman in a little more than a month, by the way. Back in late August police were called to the scene of a shooting, and quickly determined that the victim was actually the suspect in a domestic violence incident.

According to LaGrange authorities, on Aug. 19, police responded to a residence on Loch Court regarding someone being shot.

Upon arrival, officers found Charles Shields suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper torso. He was immediately taken to the hospital to receive treatment for his injury.

The Criminal Investigations Section began an investigation into the shooting, where it was discovered Shields was physically assaulting his wife.

Investigators say during the assault, Shields’ wife got a gun and shot him in self-defense. After she shot the suspect, she left the residence and called the police for help.

I hate that these women were put in a situation where they had to use deadly force to protect themselves, but I sure am glad that they had access to a gun when they needed it most. Thankfully, more and more women are embracing their Second Amendment rights… even Democrats, which is great to see. Self-defense is a human right, after all, and one that ideally should be protected and promoted by both of our major political parties and across the ideological spectrum.