Little rats trapped.

Tennessee state senator Tim Burchett was sick and tired of being repeatedly victimized by burglaries. Three motorcycles and a security camera had been stolen from a warehouse he owns, and so he staked out the place, waiting for the thieves to strike again.

Assuming from the timing of the thefts that school-age teens were involved, Burchett sat in wait on the afternoon of November 15, when the local high school was closed for the day because of plumbing problems. He wasn't disappointed. The teens arrived and quickly cut the lock off his warehouse. Burchett called 911, but when the teens began leaving, carrying tires and wheels, he acted.

Telling the dispatcher that he was armed and was going to arrest the teens, he made his move. He caught four teenagers, and asked the dispatcher to have officers meet him at a nearby business. According to WATE.com, after 10 minutes of waiting, no officers had arrived on the scene.

Burchett then made a second call to 911 to get officers sent to meet him. Five minutes later, they finally arrived. Thinking that the response to his call was unacceptably slow, Burchett publicly condemned the response time. His anger was apparently justified. It turned out that at the time of Burchett's initial call to 911, "a deputy was parked across the street."

Knox County, Tennessee, emergency dispatchers "answered about 660,000 calls for help last year. That breaks down to about 1,800 calls a day." But Burchett's call was forwarded to "the sheriff's office exactly one minute and four seconds after his first call." The slow response came as a result of actions of the sheriff's office.

This incident goes a long way toward explaining the popularity of right-to-carry laws across the United States.