By Michael Bielawski
A Georgia, Vermont resident was interrupted late on Tuesday night as three home intruders tried to break through a locked door. Like many homes in Vermont, the resident inside was a gun owner.
The break-in attempt did not go as planned. The owner, Gordon Richard Sr., 75, used a muzzleloader rifle to shoot one of the three men, causing the other two to flee. He then secured himself inside the home and called the police.
State police say the man who was shot was 39-year-old Paul E. Brown of Milton and St. Albans, he was seriously injured.
When police arrived, the other two intruders had fled. The police report states, “Responding troopers located Brown in a neighbor’s yard. No other individuals were found at the scene. Brown was transported by ambulance to Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans and later transferred to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, where he was listed in critical condition Wednesday afternoon.”
There are not any charges filed yet for this incident. The report states, “Throughout the day Wednesday, troopers have executed a court-ordered search warrant at the home, spoken with individuals and pursued various leads. Richard has been cooperative with investigators. No one has been taken into custody or faces any charges at this time.”
The owner’s son, Matthew Richards, 40, is being sought by police as part of the investigation. He lives in the same building as his father in a separate section.
A similar event occurred last October when a Royalton man with a criminal record tried to enter a locked door at night in a Royalton home belonging to someone else. The homeowner shot at him with a Sig Sauer, thwarting the burglary and leading to his arrest.
Most American homes have guns
As of November, it’s been reported that 52% of Americans either have a gun or live with someone who has a gun within their household according to an NBC News poll. It’s a trend that’s increasing over time. In 2019, 46% of households had a gun, and 42% in 2013.
The Daily Signal recently put out a report titled “Self-Defense Stories Debunk Anti-Gun Activists’ Claims”.
It states, “Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged. In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year.”
According to a report on ConservativeChoiceCampiagn.com, high gun ownership not only deters home invasions but also terrorism.
“This just makes America safer. Any hostile force dumb enough to try a Hamas-style attack in the United States would be met by an armed populace on almost every street corner,” it states.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle