teen shoots intruderHow often does a story about a teenager and a handgun have a happy ending? This one definitely does: A 14-year-old boy in Phoenix saved his younger siblings' lives by shooting and critically wounding an armed intruder with a handgun. Police say the boy was babysitting his 8, 10, and 12-year-old siblings when a woman he didn't recognize started knocking on the door. Because she was unfamiliar, he didn't let her in the house ... but just a little while later, a strange man started pounding on the door. The teen apparently ran upstairs to get the handgun, and when he got back to the top of the stairs, the man broke down the door and pointed a gun at the boy and his siblings.

That's when the 14-year-old pulled the trigger, shooting the suspect in the chest. Then he grabbed his siblings and ran to a neighbor's house, where he called the police. The suspect is now in the hospital but is expected to go straight to jail once he recovers.

This story could have ended very badly if that 14-year-old boy didn't know how to shoot a gun, but he did -- and I'm going to guess he's had a decent amount of target practice, too, since he got the guy in the chest on his first try. Thank god his parents (I'm assuming) taught him the proper way to handle a gun! I'm not saying guns and kids are always a good mix -- indeed, often they're an incredibly dangerous combination. But maybe that's because kids generally aren't educated about guns and how to use them properly. I don't have a gun in my house and my kids can barely use a can opener, but if I did have a gun and they were older, I'd want them to learn how to shoot it.

Do you think it's a good thing for teens to know how to handle guns?

Image via ABC