Columbia Township Man Defends Home From 2 Invaders

The small Cincinnati suburb of Columbia Township doesn’t normally make the headlines of the local news, but when a heroic tale of a man defending his family and property from a group of home invaders rolls around, news vans tend to roll up.

Gary Gross is the 24-year-old homeowner who is the subject of this story. Gary lives in Columbia Township with his girlfriend and their young son. It was these people who Gary was forced to defend as two men broke into his home at around 3:00 AM on Saturday, July 22nd.

When Gary heard rustling from inside of his home in the middle of the night, he knew that there currently was no gun within arms reach of him, as he had left his firearm in his car outside of his home, so he was forced to improvise and did so by picking up a nearby hammer before going to investigate the scene.

After finding the two men in his home, police reported that there was a small fight that broke out with Gary’s hammer. However, the home invaders were already having none of it and proceeded to try and take the fight outside. That’s when Gary found his opening.

As the group made it outside, Gary was able to make it to his car where he was able to pick up his firearm. He then fired at both of the intruders, striking both of them before they high-tailed it out of Dodge.

“They picked the wrong day to do something like that,” Gary told reporters. “I don’t want to kill anybody, so hopefully they’ll be okay and they’ll learn a lesson.”

According to hospital notes on the two shot criminals, at the time of the writing of this article both are still alive, with one in stable condition, while the other remains in critical condition.

When asked about his thoughts on the matter, Gary replied with a statement many in the concealed carry community feel as the entire reason why they carry at all.

“You have to do what you got to do. You have to make sure that these guys do not make it to that back room. Your son is back there. If anything happens to you, he’s defenseless, she’s (Gary’s girlfriend) defenseless.”

And it seems that Gary has done exactly what he needed to do.

Luckily Ohio is a shall-issue state that allows folks like Gary to be able to defend themselves and their families much more easily than other states do. Concealed Carry Inc., in fact, has a new map tool to show America’s different stances on firearms throughout the 50 states that you are encouraged to check out to stay up to date on your state’s gun stances and any major switches in legislation.

So what do you think of this story? Are you proud to be from a state that allows Gary a little bit more ease to defend himself at home? Do you think Ohio can go further with its gun legislation? Let us know in the comments below.