The Armed Citizen Report: Texas 1980

Armed citizens use their legally owned firearms to stop crimes every day.  Sometimes it's a property crime and sometimes it's a direct threat to life and limb.  No matter what the crime, an armed citizen is a criminal's worst nightmare.  That's especially true in Texas.

A young Carrolton, Tex., mother was awakened by early morning pounding on her apartment door. As she answered the door, a youth kicked it open and began choking and beating her. A neighbor, hearing her screams, responded to find the attacker starting after the woman's four-year-old child. He held the intruder at shotgun point for police. Officers identified the youth as a previously arrested suspect in a gang rape who had been released pending a hearing in that case. (The Daily Times, Carrolton, TX, 08/6/80)

A young Bayton, Tex., mother awoke to find a man clad only in a baseball cap and socks exposing himself to her 7-year-old daughter. Grabbing her handgun and daughter, the woman fled to the living room, the intruder pursuing. The mother then turned and shot him three times. Police later apprehended the twice-convicted child molester nearby. (The Houston Post, Houston, TX 08/22/80)

After repeated burglaries at his Pleasant Grove, Tex., used goods store, owner Ernest Graf and his 15-year-old son started sleeping in the office. Awakened by noises on the roof, Graf armed himself with his shotgun and waited. When the would-be burglar was half way down a rope he had secured to the skylight, Graf switched on the lights and held him at bay while his son called police. The intruder, it turned out, was wanted for three Dallas-area murders.  (The Times Herald, Dallas, TX 07/01/80)

Startled by a noise at the front door of her apartment, a Lubbock, Tex., woman got a pistol and investigated. As she entered the living room, she was attacked by a knife-wielding intruder who stabbed her in the shoulder. When the housewife started shooting, the assailant fled, apparently uninjured.  (The Avalanche-Journal, Lubbock, TX, 2/15/80)

When Tod McCray failed to answer a knock at the back door of his Beaumont, Tex., home around mid-morning, four youths opened the unlocked door and walked inside. Hearing the commotion, McCray armed himself with a shotgun, captured three of the young prowlers, and held them at bay until police arrived. Police found the fourth intruder hiding under a bed.  (The Enterprise, Beaumont, TX, 01/17/80)

Awakened by the cries of her 6-year-old daughter, a Baytown, Tex., woman spied a male intruder hiding beside her bed. The woman grabbed a pistol she kept under her pillow, took the child in her arms, and ran into the next room. When the intruder followed, she shot him. The wounded man fled, but police found him hiding in some nearby bushes and wearing only a pair of socks.  (The Chronicle, Houston, TX 04/01/80)

When 89-year-old Fred Green saw a man leaving one of his vacant San Antonio, Tex., rental houses, he called police, found his pistol, and confronted the intruder, who started toward him in a threatening manner. When his warnings to halt were ignored, Green fired a shot near the would-be burglar's legs and thus persuaded him to wait peaceably until police arrived. (The Daily News, Amarillo, TX 04/01/80)

Texans understand that we all need to stand up and assert our right to keep and bear arms or face losing it. Help protect your rights by joining the NRA. The NRA fights to keep your right to keep and bear arms intact.