Mother Uses Shotgun Gift to Shoot Housebreaker

Someone in Oklahoma has learned a valuable lesson. It’s one that most of us already know: Don’t break into peoples’ houses.

An Oklahoma City news article says that when Cathy Kouba’s alarm went off, she knew something wasn’t right. Her handicapped daughter was in possible danger, and her maternal instincts took over. She grabbed her home defense gun, a pump shotgun with pistol grip, and hustled downstairs. She ran out the front door and around to the rear of her house, where she found her back door kicked in.

Her son gave her the shotgun for Mother’s Day. What a good son to treat his mother so well!

She worked the pump to chamber a shell, and spotted the bad guy beating a hasty retreat. He got tangled in her electric fence, and she fired a round at him.

Although he kept going, he left a blood trail and footprint evidence was taken from her door. I’d imagine the perp will get caught when he seeks hospital treatment. As Kouba said, “I’m sure he’s gonna end up in the hospital somewhere. He’s got buckshot in his butt, I’m sure he’s going to.”

Although we can’t know what we would do until/unless we were in the identical situation, I don’t think I would have fired at the guy. He was retreating, and therefore not posing a threat. The use of deadly force is not very defensible. I may have fired the gun into the ground as a scare tactic, and I wouldn’t have hesitated to fire if someone threatened me or my family, but I’m not sure she did the right thing.

What do you think?

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.