I remember folks talking about how, once upon a time, you could leave your front door unlocked without a care in the world. I’m not sure that it was ever that great of an idea, necessarily, but people did it without a problem. Truth be told, people still do it in some places and don’t have an issue.

A couple on California did that, but I suspect they won’t do it again after what happened to them.

Meghan Gantz is the talk of the Alta neighborhood. Around 11 p.m. Friday, she wandered up and down Culberson Road, knocking on doors, eventually walking through the unlocked door of a home and laying down on the living room floor as a couple watching tv.

Lt. Andrew Scott said Gantz “started acting odd, [and] appeared to be drunk or high. They didn’t know who she was and didn’t invite her to the house.”

The couple pushed Gantz outside, but she returned and pulled a gun from her jacket. Deputies said the homeowner wrestled the gun away, but she returned once more, grabbing the woman by the throat and choking her.

Neighbors said Gantz made other stops that night.

“We hear the door rattling like this, it was locked, so I cracked it open a little bit and there’s this drunken lady on my front porch trying to get in,” Melissa McRill said.

Deputies were called to the incident down the road and found Gantz circling the house, threatening to kill the occupants. She then tried to grab the deputies’ duty belt while refusing to leave quietly.

Of course, this raises a handful of questions for me.

For one, what the hell is wrong with this woman? Clearly she’s suffering from some kind of mental illness. Sane people don’t just walk into someone’s home and then plop down on the floor like they belong there.

Second, after taking the gun from the woman in the first place, why didn’t the homeowner use that gun when Gantz was choking their partner (I’m using pronouns this way because I don’t know the sexes of anyone involved other than Gantz)? That would have been sufficient grounds for lethal force if ever I saw them.

Finally, though, is just how did someone like this get a gun in the first place? I have it on good authority that gun control works quite well and California has more gun control than pretty much anywhere else in the nation, yet somehow Gantz got a gun and was able to pull it on these people. Sounds like a complete and total gun control failure to me.

There are lessons here, though. Lessons people should already know, such as keeping their doors locked. Then there are lessons like just because you’re not expecting trouble doesn’t mean it won’t come, so keep your guns handy.

Luckily, Gantz didn’t hurt anyone. However, it’s not clear that she was harmless. Harmless people tend not to pull guns on people, choke folks, or grab police officers’ belts where they keep their guns.