An 85-year-old woman boldly went for her gun and busted a would-be burglar inside her home, then forced him to call police while she kept him in her sights, police said.

“I just walked right on past him to the bedroom and got my gun,” Leda Smith said.

Smith heard someone break into her home Monday afternoon and grabbed the .22-caliber revolver she had been keeping by her bed since a neighbor’s home was burglarized a few weeks ago.

“I said ‘What are you doing in my house?’ He just kept saying he didn’t do it,” Smith said.

After the 17-year-old boy called 911, Smith kept holding the gun on him until state police arrived at her home in Springhill Township, about 45 miles south of Pittsburgh.

The boy will be charged with attempted burglary and related offenses in juvenile court, Trooper Christian Lieberum said. He was not identified because of his age.

“It was exciting,” Smith said. “I just hope I broke up the (burglary) ring because they have been hitting a lot of places around here.”

I am a HUGE supporter of the Second Amendment.  I know many people feel that the wording of the Second Ammendment, does not guarentee an individual the right to carry a weapon.  I believe Thomas Jefferson said it best, citing ‘On Crimes and Punishment’ by criminologist Cesare Beccaria, when he said “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

I find it curious that so many countries want to prohibit an individuals right to keep and carry a weapon.  In Switzerland, Every male goes through basic training at the age of 20, and then is required by law to keep a government issued weapon at his home until his military reserve status is changed at 30.  Switzerland has by far the greatest percentage of guns per capita, very nearly no gun crimes as a result.

I’ll leave you with one question.  Would you want to rob a house or person, if you knew they had been trained in the use of, and were required by law to own a weapon?