Utah Shooting Sports Council
Protecting Safe and Legal Gun Ownership and Use
P.O. Box 17561, Salt Lake City, UT 84117
Copyright 2001 by Utah Shooting Sports Council.  All rights reserved

Armed Citizens- Schools
Courtesy of the National Rifle Association's "Armed Citizen" archives.
Note that these represent only a sample of  incidents.  These are drawn from cases printed in the American Rifleman, limited by space to about a dozen cases each month from all over the country.
You can search for any state or key word at the NRA-ILA "Armed Citizen" file


 The Janesville Gazette, Janesville, WI, 3/24/99
A 14-year-old Plymouth Township, Wisconsin, girl was getting ready for school early one morning when she noticed a man peering inside through a bedroom window. The frightened girl, whose parents had already left for work, responded by retrieving a double-barrelled shotgun. That image was apparently enough to send the man fleeing. The girl's father had set out both the shotgun and a pistol for exactly such a contingency after she reported seeing the same man the previous day.
 
 Greensboro News & Record, Greensboro, NC, 4/28/98 
Seventy-eight-year-old Mattie Lou Sherman was prepared when she set out one Friday night to investigate a loud noise at the back door of her house. Before she could get that far, she met a man, already inside, advancing toward her. According to police, she fired five times from her .38-cal. handgun, sending the man fleeing. Later, officers found the intruder near a local elementary school with wounds to the head, neck and shoulder. They said he would face first-degree burglary charges.
 
 The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS, 10/2/97
Alarmed at the sound of gunfire in the halls of his Pearl, Mississippi, high school, Assistant Principal Joel Myrick ran to his car to retrieve a pistol. The shooter was an armed student who marched through the school firing on his fellow classmates and teachers. The assailant's efforts to escape the scene ground to a halt when another student used his own vehicle to force the suspect's white car into the grass, where it spun to a stop. Myrick used the delay to catch up to the armed student and hold him for police. Pearl schools Superintendent Bill Dodson said of Myrick, "We think he's a hero for keeping more lives from being lost. The young man with the gun still had rounds in the rifle and could have injured other people."
 
 The Chronicle-Telegram, Elyria, Ohio 3/4/93 
Darren Yakunovich didn't expect to be holding a rifle on a friend, but that's how it worked out when the 17-year-old Kipton, Ohio, youth stayed home from school to catch a burglar who had hit his parent's home several times previously. When the erstwhile friend walked into an upstairs bedroom, Yakunovich held him at gunpoint until police arrived.
 
 The Herald, Everett, WA, 12/19/91
After their son received several death threats, an Everett, Wash., couple arranged for an armed neighbor to be at their home when the boy arrived home from school. When the man--a suspect in several sexual assaults on children--broke into the home, the neighbor struggled with and shot him. The intruder fled, but was later apprehended by police.
 
 The Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS, 7/3/91
As his father fought for his life with a man accused of murdering two men earlier, 15-year-old Mickey Sanford poked a rifle through the window of the family's rural mobile home and killed the criminal with a single shot, authorities in Sumrall, Miss., said. Tammy Sanford, Mickey's mother, also armed herself and shot her husband's assailant. William Sanford suffered a wound from the slain man's handgun in the struggle. The dead man had been the object of a week-long manhunt after he allegedly kidnapped two school girls and then killed two men while stealing a truck near Seminary, Miss.
 
 The Chronicle, Houston, TX, 2/3/91
Inez McGrew, a 72-year-old Houston, Tex., Sunday school teacher, put her new .38 revolver to good use when she stopped a state prison parolee who had broken into her brother's home. McGrew, staying at the home after several earlier burglaries, pulled the gun from under the couch when the man woke her up and screamed to alert her brother's roommate. When the burglar lunged, both she and the roommate fired their guns, fatally wounding the intruder. "I encourage all my friends to go to a shooting range," McGrew said. "Take courses and learn how to protect yourself."
 
 The Tribune, Albuquerque, NM, 9/28/90
When James Borland, a former New Mexico state senator and U.S. attorney, awoke to noises in his Albuquerque home one night, he investigated, Smith & Wesson in hand. When a burglar came out of another bedroom, Borland fired a single shot that sent him fleeing. Police later apprehended a wounded 17-year-old at a local hospital. He proved to be a multiple offender, out on probation from the New Mexico Boys School.
 
 The Oregonian, Portland, OR, 6/10/89
Kurt Jensen, a high school senior in Portland, Oreg., was studying at home alone when he heard someone trying to break in. Jensen got his father's revolver and went to a side door where an intruder was attempting to gain entrance. The 18-year-old told the man to stop, but when he continued to break in, the student shot to death the intruder. The man was wanted on three felony warants and a parole violation. Jensen was not charged.
 
 The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, VA, 10/6/88  
Ernest Johnson III heard noises coming from the garage of his Virginia Beach, Va., home and armed himself as he went to investigate. The junior high school assistant principal found a prowler in the kitchen and told the man to halt. The intruder ran toward Johnson, who fired his handgun once, fatally wounding the prowler. The city prosecutor declined to prosecute the homeowner, saying the shooting was self-defense.

 The Herald-Journal, Spartanburg, SC, 3/15/88
Eleven-year-old Todd Knight of Switzer, S.C., was home alone after school for the first time when two "rough looking" men broke in through a window. Realizing he had no way to escape, Knight loaded his .22 rifle, a Christmas gift, and when the two intruders spotted him as they were ransacking the house, the boy opened fire, killing both burglars. The county sheriff's department, calling the shootings justifiable, said both men had records.
 
 The Tribune, Chicago, IL, 2/17/87
When Russell Dooley heard glass breaking at a side window of his Chicago, Ill., home, he told his wife to call police. The school teacher then got his recently purchased .38 revolver and went outside to investigate. A teen lunged at Dooley with a tree branch, and the resident shot and killed his attacker and wounded an accomplice. A wounded suspect was charged with burglary in a juvenile petition. Dooley was not charged.
 
 The Gazette-Journal, Reno, NV, 3/6/86 
Laura and Scott Williams, two Sparks, Nev., teenagers, returned home from school to find a stranger ransacking their house. When the intruder reached for his back pocket, Scott grabbed a pistol he kept in his room and held the burglar until police arrived.
 
 The Journal-Scene, Summerville, SC, 2/27/85
When Ridgeville, S.C., resident Vance Varner walked into his backyard, he was accosted by a masked man carrying a shotgun. Varner pulled a pistol, fired and the man fled. Police said the culprit was also suspected of burglarizing a nearby school.
 
 The News, Birmingham, AL, 7/10/81
When a neighbor called to tell him that a gang of young thieves was stealing gas from school buses near his Tarrant, Ala., home, Bill Arnold didn't think about his heart condition. He grabbed a .45 cal. pistol and ran to the bus lot, where he apprehended the five thieves. A school board representative praised Arnold, saying, "it's one thing to call the police, it's another to actually apprehend the people in the middle of the night to save community property."
 
 The Tribune, San Gabriel Valley, CA, 3/11/81
A trio of young burglars had gotten past Charles Noll's watchdog by feeding him cookies and were ransacking his West Covina, Calif., home when the NRA member returned one morning. Noll grabbed a .357 and collared the three, all truants from a nearby high school. Noll, a hunter safety instructor, says he favors a shotgun for home defense--"you rack a round into that chamber, and I guarantee the next sound you'll hear is that burglar running out of your house."
 
 The News-Press, Ft. Myers, FL, 5/10/79
Volusia County, Fla., judge, Darrel Carnell doesn't mess around. When the defendent in a recent battery case disrupted his own trial by shouting and, finally, rushing at the judge, Carnell produced a small-caliber pistol from beneath his robes and ordered the man to return to his seat. The defendant did as he was told, but remained so violent that he had to be gagged and, in the end, removed from the courtroom. The judge defended his policy of carrying a gun in court, citing both state law and the opinions of several attorney generals. A high school counselor, accompanying 14 students on a visit to the court, did, too. "If I was a judge, I'd carry [a gun] too," she said.

 The Press, Riverside, CA
Two housebreakers were trying to enter the Riverside, Calif., home of Edwin "Pop" Gardner, an 88-year-old retired doctor and school board member. The pair chased Gardner and his wife into their bedroom and tried to break down the door after the elderly couple barricaded themselves in. Finally Gardner opened fire with a shotgun, severely wounding one of the thugs.
 
 The Dominion Post, Morgantown, WV 
Retired school teacher Marjorie DeGarmo awoke to find a man with a rifle in the bedroom of her Wadestown, W. Va., house. She scuffled with the stranger and managed to get her pistol from the night stand. The pistol discharged, killing the man. The shooting was later ruled "justifiable homicide by reason of self-defense" by the local prosecuting attorney.
 
 The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, AZ
High school rifle team captain Vicki Van Male was at her after-school job in a Denver, Colo., doughnut shop when an armed man entered the store, emptied the register and ordered her to follow him outside. She did as told, but while walking managed to grab the robber's gun and wound him.
 
 Seattle Post Intelligencer, Seattle, WA
Samuel S. Cameron, associate principal of the Garfield High School in Garfield, Wash., spotted a youth who had caused a disturbance on the campus. When Cameron asked the youth to leave, the latter pulled what appeared to be a gun. Grabbing his own pistol, Cameron fired into the ground, causing the troublemaker to flee.
 
 The Cleveland Banner, Cleveland, TN
James D. Moore, a Bryant, Tenn., high-school senior, got his gun from his home when he saw gunmen robbing a local post office. As the bandits fled by car, Moore put a shot into one of the car's taillights which enabled police and postal inspectors to identify the car later. For this, he was awarded $1,500 by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
 
 Daily News, Anchorage, AK  
An Anchorage, Alaska, man heard someone breaking into a school next door at 3 a.m. While his wife called police, the man got a gun and stopped the burglar.
 
 Star, Washington, DC
Four youths bent on vandalizing the cafeteria of St. Francis Xavier School and Convent in Baltimore late in May broke a basement window and fled when surprised by 2 nuns. When the boys stopped to watch their pursuers, Sister Thomasine, the Superior, fired a pistol shot into the air. They took off and didn't stop again. "The gun was just to scare them off," Sister Thomasine said. "I wanted to give them a good whipping."
 
 Ledger, Columbus, GA
An intruder will remember the night he invaded the basement of St. Mary's Catholic School in Covington, Ky. He found himself looking down the barrel of a .38 revolver held by pistol-packing Rev. Edwin B. Heile, who surprised him and took him into custody until police arrived.


Rev 12/01

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