With a little help. (Exercising the Right).(woman living alone uses gun to stop burglar, Duncan, South Carolina)

Shortly before 1:00 p.m. on March 20th, someone rang the front doorbell of Margaret Summey's home in Duncan, South Carolina. The 64-year-old widow did not answer and moments later heard someone jiggle the back door. She then heard the noise of a trash can being moved behind the house.

Summey had been taught marksmanship by her first husband, an avid hunter. She keeps shotguns and a .357 Magnum handgun in the house. Summey told the March 21st Spartanburg [S.C.] Herald-Journal, "I went straight and got the .357 Magnum," explaining that she "would have used a shotgun, but I had just had new countertops done and I didn't want to tear up the kitchen."

The person attempting to enter Summey's home was Timothy Doyle Huitt. Huitt had placed the trash can under a bedroom window, used a brick to smash the glass, then crawled into the house through the window. As described by the Herald-Journal, "Summey went from the lower part of her house up some stairs and down a utility room hallway, where beyond a locked door was her kitchen. Through the gap under the door, Summey could see shadows indicating that someone was in the kitchen."

Waiting until she saw a shadow pinpointing the intruder's location, Summey fired a single shot through the door. The slug struck Huitt in the leg, severing his femoral artery. Summey heard Huitt cry out, so assumed that the shot had found its mark. Leaving the door closed, she called 911.

Though seriously wounded, Huitt fled, leaving a trail of blood leading to the parking lot of the ...