Widow with a gun, an Arizona story worth celebrating

Another month, another Arizona gun story.

July brought us the gun toting doctor who marched through Sky Harbor, his trusty AR-15 hanging from his shoulder as people all around him scattered. It was a story that made international headlines.

August brought us the tragedy of a little girl handed an Uzi, as her parents stood proudly by, videoing the occasion – a story that also was heard round the world.

September brings us the other side of the Second Amendment, a widow with a gun and the ability to use it responsibly – a story that also should have scored big headlines but didn't.

That's a shame for Arizona (where contrary to our image, not everybody is walking around with an assault-style rifle at the ready). And it's a missed opportunity, given our ongoing, unending fistfight over guns.

Because the story is a place where all the various combatants could perhaps find some common ground and dare I say it? Trust.

Cynthia, a 47-year-old widow, realized that somebody was trying to break into her house one morning in May. She didn't panic, didn't back down and she didn't go all Rambo either.

Instead, she simply defended herself and police say she did everything right. She called 911, she armed herself with a gun she knew how to use and she retreated to the bathroom, hoping that help would arrive in time but knowing that if it didn't she would just have to provide her own rescue.

The 911 tape, released this morning, provides a chilling account of her encounter with Michael Lewis, who used a weeding tool to break the glass in the backyard Arcadia door of her west Phoenix home.

"They've tried my front door, my front door, and now they're trying to break in my back gate…," Cynthia tells the 911 operator at one point. "I have a gun in my hands. I'm terrified."

Later, "Somebody is on my back porch." And then, "Please help me, please!" as the operator assures her that help is on the way.

"They're coming out as fast as they can," the operator says. "Have you heard any voices?"

Cynthia: "Hurry, hurry! They're coming in right now, please, please, please!

As it turns out, the police weren't coming quickly enough. Lewis broke into the bathroom and started attacking Cynthia. So she shot him.

Lewis: "Ow! (Expletive.) What was that? What was that? What was that? (Expletive) did you do?"

Her answer was classic. "Did you think you could beat me half to death?"

Lewis: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."

Cynthia: "You bet you're sorry you nasty thing."

Lewis was hospitalized for a month. He's pleaded guilty to burglary and aggravated assault and will be sentenced later this month and when he gets out, maybe he'll think twice about breaking into somebody's house.

As for Cynthia, she told police that her late husband taught her how to handle her .38.

Good for him and really, really good for her.

But while the gun toting doc at the airport and the little girl with the Uzi were big news, the story of a widow and an iron will registered barely a blip.

What a shame.

Maybe if we could agree that there are circumstances where a gun is a godsend, we could also agree that there should be some reasonable limits when they are not.