The Armed Citizen® Reload April 17, 2026

It's reality TV at its best: A brave hotel clerk is captured on video as she thwarts an armed robbery—and potentially worse—with her own handgun.

by posted on April 17, 2026
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NRA Women The Armed Citizen Pistol

These accounts of brave armed women who defended themselves appeared in earlier editions of The Armed Citizen®.

It's not exactly how one expects to be an internet sensation, but this is reality TV at its most serious. Here's what happened when a would-be robber pointed a rifle at a hotel clerk in Houston early one morning. As you can see in the video, the thug snuck past the clerk into an adjacent hallway, where he pulled out a rifle he had stashed in a bag. He then returned to the clerk’s counter, where he climbed over and demanded cash from her drawer. But the brave clerk didn’t succumb to the threat, and instead drew her own handgun and pointed it at him, surprising the man and scaring him enough to cause him to run away. As of this posting, police are still looking for the suspect. (KHOU.com; Houston, Texas; 2/8/23)

It was about 3 a.m. when a 67-year-old Florida woman said she heard the front door handle of her home jiggling. Believing it might be her husband returning home from work, she got up to open it. Fortunately, the 67-year-old had the foresight to carry her handgun with her, as it proved to be lifesaving. As she opened the door, an intruder forced his entry. The startled woman ordered him to leave, but he ignored her demands. When the man raised his arms, the woman spotted a gun in his hand. Fearing for her life, she fired once at the man, striking him. Responding officers arrived to find the wounded 64-year-old attacker on the floor. He was taken to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Further investigation revealed that authorities had received several calls about bizarre behavior just prior to the incident, and police were responding to those concerns when he broke into the woman’s home. Sheriff H.D. "Gator" DeLoach reportedly told local press that, “This call for service is a perfect example of why I continue to support and fight daily for the rights of law-abiding residents to own firearms. … She absolutely had the right to defend herself … “ (theblaze; Putnam County, Fla., 2/16/23)

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