By Dean Weingarten
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- A story going around the net is of Gladis Bennett, 93 yr old grandmother, who supposedly shot and killed one of a group of attackers who were “playing” the knockout game.
The story caught my interest for obvious reasons, and because the blog referenced in the link above showed a picture of an older woman holding a large handgun, which I recognized as a large hand air gun, a Webley Tempest or Mark II air pistol.
This prodded me to investigate further, to determine if the story were real or just another Internet hoax/satire.
It is not as if such events are implausible. A recent case in Lansing, Michigan is suspiciously similar, and may have served as a exemplar for the story.
I could not find any actual news source for the story of the “Gladis Bennett”, but I did find a Snopes article that showed the story as originating on National Report a news satire site.
We live interesting times, where satire is often hard to separate from real news events, without some research.
©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.