Not my story- but my adopted sister's.

She and her new husband traveled in their new camper from Oregon to the interior of Alaska. One evening they pulled to the side of the road for a bit of a nap. They were awakened by an intruder who was trying to get into their camper.

Fearing the barbarians of the north, Joe snapped loudly to my sister: Eileen, hand me my gun.

Eileen, ever a literal sort, scoffed. You don't have a gun, Joe, she said.

(Joe said later that if he had, he might have used it on her.)

Turned it was not a human intruder but a grizzly.