Armed Woman Takes Down Airbnb Invader

Is someone a home invader if they're invading the Airbnb you rented, or just an Airbnb invader? I don't suppose it really matters all that much, because no good comes of being on the receiving end of such an invasion. It's bad enough if it happens in your home, but there you are, in a somewhat strange city, sleeping in a house that's not your own, and then someone decides to get rowdy.

For one woman staying at an Airbnb in North Carolina, that happened.

It didn't turn out well for the invader.

WEST JEFFERSON, N.C. — A North Carolina woman refused to become a helpless victim when a man allegedly kicked down the door of her Airbnb rental in the middle of the night. Instead, she exercised her right to armed self-defense, shooting the intruder as he entered the occupied home.

The October 13 defensive shooting in West Jefferson left the suspected intruder hospitalized and later facing felony burglary and assault charges. Now, Ashe County Sheriff B. Phil Howell is publicly standing behind the right of Americans to defend themselves and their families.

According to an October 26 press release from the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a 911 call at approximately 3 a.m. from a woman staying at an Airbnb on Sunset Ridge Road. The caller reported that a man had kicked down the door and that she shot him when he entered the residence.

Deputies and emergency medical personnel arrived alongside officers from the West Jefferson and Jefferson police departments. Authorities identified the wounded man as 33-year-old Icon Christen of Long Branch, New Jersey.

Christen was initially transported to Ashe Memorial Hospital before being flown to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem for further treatment. He survived his injuries and was subsequently released from the hospital.

It seems Christen was already being hunted due to a domestic disturbance call the night before, which means we're apparently looking at a stellar example of a human being who has a very particular view of women.

Unfortunately for him, he decided to get rowdy with a Southern woman who understands the right to keep and bear arms and wasn't afraid to exercise it.

I'm a big advocate of women learning to shoot, and crap like this is precisely why. Some anti-gunners like to pretend that everyone with a gun is a guy who is just too weak to beat the hell out of someone like Christen, but the reality is that some people are too dangerous to even risk it for most of us, and for women especially, the risks are too great, even if she's a skilled martial artist.

Christen broke down the door to a residence that wasn't his. Nothing about this screams "I just need to use the phone" or "Can I borrow a cup of sugar?"

Now, Christen not only has a long, probably painful recovery ahead of him, but he'll likely get to do much of it behind bars.

I don't have a lot of use for wife beaters as it is, but those who then try to victimize another woman afterward are especially vile. It's very possible that Christen didn't know it was a woman inside, admittedly, but I'm not sure it really matters. Either he targeted this woman because she was a woman, and got shot for it, or he got shot in the name of irony.

I'm fine with it either way, really.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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