This guy got so lucky...

Janesville, Wisconsin:

Rainiero told police he went back to his bedroom and told his wife to call police. Rainiero retrieved a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol from the closet, went to the master bathroom, removed the gun lock, loaded the weapon and then returned to the hallway.

Wow. His gun was in the closet, unloaded, with a gun lock, and the intruder actually allowed him to retrieve, re-able, and load his gun. Not to mention he made a disabling one-shot stop with a .380.

This is the bad part:

Although O'Leary has cleared Rainiero of criminal wrongdoing, that does not affect Rainiero's civil liability.

"There's always exposure civilly," O'Leary said. "Anybody can sue anybody civilly. The question is, 'Would he win?'"

O'Leary doesn't think so.

"It would be a difficult task to try and prove that Dr. Rainiero is more at fault than the individual breaking into the home for the resulting consequences," O'Leary said.

This is why there needs to be national protection from b.s. civil lawsuits. If self-defensive shooting is found to be justified, dragging someone through court and wrecking their finances should not be allowed.

In this case, he would probably not be found "more at fault than the individual breaking into the home," but he would still be punished with the stress and expense of a court case that shouldn't ever have happened. The very idea that the good Doctor might be found "more at fault" than the thug who actually broke into his home is repugnant to me. But I know that's how some idiots think.