It’s the scenario we all think about at some point. For some of us, it’s the sole reason why we have guns. For many others, it’s just one of many factors we consider. Either way, it’s something that the vast majority of us pray never happens.

For one Washington homeowner, though, it did.

A 28-year-old South Kitsap man is in an area hospital after being shot by a man whose house he was attempting to break into early Thursday.

Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a report of someone trying to break into a home on SE Scatterwood Lane, off Southworth Drive, at about 2 a.m. Thursday.

The caller reported hearing a loud banging sound on windows on the lower level of his home, according to a statement from the Sheriff’s Office. The homeowner, who had a handgun, also reported hearing yelling outside the house.

When he opened the door, the 28-year-old man allegedly charged at the homeowner and pushed him. According to the statement, the homeowner fired one shot at the 28-year-old man, who continued to try to enter the home while yelling “Let me into your house.”

Police found the suspect lying on the threshold of the door shivering, soaking wet, and with scratches all over his face.

In my layman’s opinion, it sounds like someone is coming down from something. It doesn’t seem like he was well before he got the extra hole placed in him with a high-speed projectile.

That said, it doesn’t matter. This kind of thing happens with alarming regularity. It’s the reason I’ve been forced to reevaluate how I carry inside my home. After all, we may or may not have an opportunity to run and retrieve a firearm before someone tries to force their way into our home. I, for one, will not risk my wife’s or my children’s lives because someone might think I’m paranoid.

It’s not clear if the homeowner was routinely armed or if he had time to retrieve a weapon. Either way, he was fortunate to have a gun when he needed one. That’s the key takeaway here, to have one when you need it.

Luckily, the person lying on the threshold was the man trying to force his way into someone else’s home and not the law-abiding homeowner. Far too many cases don’t end like this. They end with innocent people hurt or killed. No decent human being wants to hear about that, but it happens.

Always remember cases like this when some anti-gunner tries to claim self-defense with a firearm is incredibly rare because of justified homicide statistics. The alleged bad guy here is still alive, thus won’t show up in those numbers. The same would be true if the suspect had exercised some intelligence and left the moment he noticed there was a firearm in the hands of a law-abiding citizen. But, he didn’t.

However, maybe he can now serve as an object lesson in the stupidity of trying to force your way into other people’s homes (allegedly).

An earlier version of this story identified the state as California. This actually took place in Washington state. We apologize for any confusion.