If the average gun owner will ever need to draw a weapon in self-defense, facing a burglar is probably one of the most likely possibilities. It’s still rare, but it’s probably the case that’s most likely to occur.

That possibility became reality for one North Carolina man.

Oakly was barking.

That was unusual, because she seldom actually barks, especially at 7:20 a.m.

That’s why Oakly’s owner, Owen Turman, decided to get out of bed and head downstairs to quiet the dog. It was Sunday morning, after all.

What Turman didn’t expect was a strange man in his outdoor sunroom, trying to get into the house.

Turman, who lives on Culpepper Road off Wilkesboro Highway, quickly snatched his .22-caliber bolt-action rifle and went around back to confront the stranger.

…

He asked the man what he was doing, told him to get away from the door and to lie on the ground. The stranger followed orders, but didn’t answer questions, like who he was or what he was doing. Turman, still in his underwear, called police.

And he waited.

The suspect didn’t wait patiently either, which is to be expected. Apparently, he started throwing needles at Turman’s vehicle.

Turman was also worried he’d have to fire his weapon and his little girl might see it.

It’s a terrible thought, the idea that your child might see you take another life. It’s not difficult to imagine how such an act might change the way a child looks at you. That’s terrifying.

Luckily, it was never more than a hypothetical.

In time, the police arrived and took the suspect into custody. Turman and his family were safe, at least in part because he was an armed citizen.

It’s important to remember that there are people in this country who would have preferred Turman and his wife have been murdered by a drugged out criminal than have the means to end the threat peacefully.

Keep in mind that this particular incident is unlikely to show up in any official number. When anti-gunners claim using a firearm in self-defense is rare and cite statistics of justifiable homicides, they’re ignoring people like Mr. Turman here. They’re pretending people like him don’t exist.

But they do. There are hundreds of thousands of them each year. They far outstrip those who illegally misuse firearms.

Guns, quite simply put, save lives. They save far more lives every year than they allegedly cost. Mr. Turman and his family are safe and sound, in part because of a firearm.

After all, if he didn’t have a gun, we might be talking about something far worse than a homeowner holding a suspect for the police. Instead, we could be talking about how a family had been slaughtered in the most horrific of ways. We’re not. With luck, we’ll stop seeing cases like that entirely.

But it won’t be in a world without guns. That gun free, crime-free Utopia simply doesn’t exist. It cannot exist. A pesky thing like “reality” will keep getting in the way.