You go Grandma!
Posted by Lissa on August 19, 2008
Because we all love happy endings:
LAKE LYNN, Pa. — An 85-year-old great-grandmother from Lake Lynn, Fayette County kept an alleged burglar at bay using a .22-caliber pistol. [snip]
“Dial 911 and don’t attempt to throw the phone at me, or do anything bad or i’ll just shoot you,” Smith said.
While we may debate the merits of .22 versus .357, shotgun versus pistol, birdshot versus buckshot, I doubt we’ll debate whether or not Granny would have been better with her gun, or without.
Grannies can be tough, y’all. When I was but a wee little lass growing up in Texas, my tough-as-nails grandmother lived with us for a few years. When I say tough-as-nails, I mean tough-as-stainless-steel-projectiles-fired-at-high-velocity-from-a-nail-gun tough; she lived through the 1938 Japanese invasion, hid in caves for months at a time to avoid the carnage, then picked up altogether and left China to join her husband in Jamaica, whom she hadn’t seen in ten years. Consequently, civilized life in America didn’t always mesh with her worldview.
On one memorable occasion (as told by Mom), a very, very large python decided to play in our back yard. (I can’t blame it, really; we had a kick-ASS vegetable garden that constantly attracted squirrels, birds and other pesty buggers. Can’t blame them either, we had the best green beans south of the Mason-Dixon line. In other words, anywhere.) Seeing as how my wee sister and my wee self liked playing in the back yard, and seeing as how the snake might not be too healthy a playmate — Texan snakes not being known for their sanitary habits — Japo (the grandma) promptly picked up her meat cleaver and headed purposefully for a Deathmatch 2000 type confrontation with said snake.
Luckily, Mom being home at the time, Japo was bodily stopped and dragged back inside while Mom tried to explain the concept of “police” and “animal control” and “Ai ya, crazy lady! You don’t fight snakes with meat cleavers!!” Snake was removed, garden harmony was preserved and everyone lived happily ever after, except the snake, which is as it should be.
Don’t f*ck with Grandma, y’all.
(On the flip side, we had an awful hard time explaining to Japo that Cotton was a “hamster,” not a “rat,” and no, she could not chop its head off.)
(h/t Michelle Malkin)
Jay G. said
That’s pretty funny right there, Lissa.
My grandfather, who escaped Mussolini’s Italy, was out in the field with my grandmother and me one sunny summer day when a rattlesnake came across our path.
I heard my grandmother scream, then I saw my grandfather move faster than I’d ever seen him move before (he was in his mid-60s at the time).
In the span of perhaps two seconds Grampy had unsheathed his belt knife and decapitated the rattler in one swoop.
Grampy: 1
Rattler: 0
lookingforlissa said
Go Jay G’s Grampy! My Japo also tried to beat a young alligator to death with a broom, and was thrwarted ONLY because it was made out of plastic.
secretlivesofscientists said
yeah, go Japo!
ummmm, ok, so I know you indicated not debating merits of calibur for self defense, but I can’t resist.
IMO, if faced with the option of getting shot and not getting shot, especially at close range, I’m inclined to believe that the average person would choose not getting shot. but I don’t know where the average crook falls in relation to the distribution for the average person.
a .22 calibur isn’t very big and doesn’t pack as much of a punch (cue the “duhs”) but a .22 bullet can tear up one’s inners quite a bit, just not in the same way. roll your eyes now, lissa, ‘cuz it’s basically physics: a heavier bullet hits with greater force and carries greater momentum and will not deflect as much upon entering the human body. It will make a bigger tunnel, compared to the .22 round, which may not make as big a splash, but due to the lesser force and momentum, it will deflect it’s path to a much greater degree, and “bounce around and tear a guy up,” according to white mike.
The main argument I’ve heard for the heavier rounds is that you want to use them in a situation where you need to stop a bad guy who is coming towards you. The ability of the bad guy to continue fighting and presenting as a threat generally goes down with increasing calibur. Even if you shoot someone who is charging at you with a higher calibur multiple times, they are still quite capable of coming atcha, getting to you, and hurting you. That’s why hitting the kill zones is the most effective way to stop an attacker, regardless of calibur.