A harrowing scene played out Oct. 4 in Florida, forcing a Miami mom to take action. Armed gunmen stormed into a house, holding family and friends at gunpoint. So the woman grabbed the family pistol.

Miami Mom Defends Family

Security footage shows the woman, 26-year-old Ansley Pacheco, immediately go for a pistol in her bedroom after hearing a commotion in another room. Meanwhile, intruders held her husband and 7-year-old son at gunpoint in the other room.

“You know, they could’ve killed him; they could’ve killed me,” Pacheco told local10.com. “They didn’t care at all. … We don’t (know who they are), but I really hope they get caught.”

Luckily, when the first gunman burst into the house, Pacheco remained in another room. Being out of sight enabled her to get to a gun.

“While I was in the bathroom, I started to hear the commotion, I started hearing, ‘Get down, get down, give me everything you got.’ I went to the nightstand, I grabbed the gun and I opened the door,” Pacheco told local10.com. “I saw one of them standing face to face with me. He told me to put my gun down. I just shook my head no, and then I said, ‘Don’t shoot me, my son is in here.'”

The suspects allegedly then fired several shots toward Pacheco, into the bedroom. In the footage, several gunshots ring out, backed by screams of people held at gunpoint. Luckily, the intruders finally took off.

“They finally just ran out,” Pacheco told local10.com. “My husband ran and got the gun and shot back at the vehicle that was leaving.”

Defend Yourselves

The intruders made off with jewelry, but Pacheco and her family escaped with their lives. Pacheco and her family’s run in with bad guys illustrated yet another case of where citizens use a gun to defend themselves. In this instance, just having a gun visible to the intruders might just have saved everyone’s life.

“I just knew that I had to do something, and my first instinct was to grab the gun and defend my husband and my son,” she said, reported local10.com.