East St. Louis, Illinois

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of June 25, 2006

In East St. Louis, golden years are lit by flashes of gunfire

After her 87-year-old next-door neighbor fatally shot a burglar trying to come through the front door, Eleanor Anderson - herself an older adult living alone - began sleeping with two items under her pillow: a cell phone and a gun.

The grandmother was intent on defending herself in a neighborhood that has changed drastically since she was a young girl. Anderson's small, light-green childhood home is protected by security bars and an alarm system. She also has her gun. And when Anderson, 61, heard gunshots one recent night, she was ready. She called police and waited with her snubnose .38.

"Us being seniors, criminals don't think we'd do anything," Anderson said, looking over her gold reading glasses and standing in a room filled with pictures of her four granddaughters. "We don't play anymore. We won't take this lying down."

There is something jarring about the image of a gray-haired grandma (or grandpa) packing a pistol. And there is something laudable in the image of an old-timer turning the tables on a criminal.

(Much more--an article very sympathetic to personal self-defense)