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[Munkay]

I've thought about posting this little story for awhile...but didn't want to throw it out there because it may distract from your original post. But, now that many have had their say, here's a little (true) story for you.

This happened in the late 1990's. My Dad is asleep in bed - about 2:00am (he lives alone). He hears a bunch of noise but has been in a pretty deep sleep. He starts waking up a bit and grabs his gun while he's still laying in bed. He gets out of bed and looks out his bedroom door to see a kid standing there. Dad points the gun at the kid and tells him to get down on the ground. The kid complies and starts crawling back toward the living room. Dad grabs the phone and calls 911 while he still has the gun drawn on the kid. The kid had thrown bricks through the front picture window of Dad's house and had gone through double-paned glass (he threw more than 1 brick). Anyway...kid is crawling toward the door thinking he will escape, but Dad has security doors and you need the key to open them (even from the inside).

Needless to say - kid went to jail. Dad was very freaked out, but he said the only reason he didn't shoot the kid was because initially he thought it was my brother - or at least he looked like my brother. At some point, the kid and his parents came to meet my Dad and to thank him for not killing the kid. Dad even said the kid was a decent kid, but was apparently "hopped up" on something and had gotten control of whatever issues he had.

What's my point? Dad is so much better off for not having killed this kid even though he had every right. I'm sure at the time you're being threatened, it's the "fight or flight" response, but had he not kept a level head, he may be seeing that incident in his nightmares to this day. Just sayin.