A Chicago woman is being praised by her neighbors after fending off a would-be intruder trying to enter her home through her daughter’s window. 

Police were initially called to the home on a report of a shooting around 10:45 Saturday evening, and found a man with a gunshot wound to his leg. It didn’t take long for officers to learn that the man wasn’t an innocent victim, but had been shot after allegedly trying to make his way inside the home.

“I’m just super shaken up. I’m a single mom. I live here with my children, so that’s the last thing I expect, for someone to try and come in on my daughter,” the woman, who did not want to be identified, told WGN News. “It’s just like a nightmare that came true.”

The woman told WGN News she had come home from celebrating her birthday with her family. Not long after, everything took a turn for the worst as her daughter was in the bathroom. “

While she was showering, a guy like put his hand through the window and she ran out, ‘Mom, somebody’s coming through my room, coming through my window,’” said the woman. “I just went into action and when I actually saw the guy, he was still hanging on her window and he just looked at me and I said, ‘I’ve got a gun, I’m going to shoot.’ I just fired a shot. I didn’t even know he was hit ’til the police came.”

The armed citizen told WGN that this was the first time she’s had to use her gun in defense of herself or her kids, but wasn’t about to stand idly by while her daughter was at risk. 

The woman said she did not know the suspect and the entire incident has left her shaken up. Some neighbors in the area also expressed their concern after learning of what happened.

“This is something I’ve never seen before in my life,” said Gideon Charles, who’s lived in the neighborhood for about 12 years. “This is a shock to me because this is a very quiet neighborhood.” 

“You hear about it all the time, but it’s somewhere else, but when it’s right in front of you it’s pretty concerning,” said Ron Miller, who has called the neighborhood home for close to 10 years. “It’s Chicago and we’re not under siege or anything like that, but it all concerns me. I certainly prefer for us to have a harmonious community.”

… 

Neighbors praised the alleged actions of the mom who took steps to protect her children.

“Good for them,” said Miller. 

“I, as a card holder myself, have to be very careful as to what’s taking place in this neighborhood,” said Charles. “I can assure you that if I was in the same predicament, I would have done the exact same thing.”

It’s pretty amazing that a little more than a decade ago there were no Chicago residents with a concealed carry license, and now it’s not unheard of to have multiple CCL holders living in the same block. The state of Illinois was one of the last in the nation to recognize the right to carry, and lawmakers refused to do so until the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that the state’s ban on both open and concealed carry violated the Second Amendment. Gun control activists pleaded with state officials to take the loss instead of appealing to the Supreme Court, hoping to stave off a declaration from the High Court that the Second Amendment protects the right to both keep and bear arms. 

Illinois lawmakers granted their wish and crafted a “shall issue” carry law that, while still onerous in terms of training standards, at least affords Illinois residents the ability to exercise their right to carry in self-defense and in defense of others. A carry license isn’t needed to keep a gun in your home, of course, so it’s largely irrelevant (at least from a legal perspective) that the armed mom who protected her daughter also possesses a carry permit. But it’s also a sign that more Chicagoans are embracing their Second Amendment rights, even as city officials and lawmakers in Springfield continue to take aim at the right to keep and bear arms.