A case I'm familiar with was one where an elderly lady living alone was aware of burglaries in the area. She caught a young man climbing in a window and, using the first suitable object that came to hand, a cast iron flat iron, hit him in the head. Then called the sheriff. During the estimated twenty minutes it took the sheriff's deputy to cross the rural county she sat over him and hit him again any time he raised his head.

When the deputy came in, after coming to the back door and asking permission, only louts and salesmen come to the front door, the burglar was still half in the window and, smart guy, playing dead. Lucky for him the lady, in her seventies, had the presence of mind to hit him with the flat of the iron so it did little permanent damage.

Older people can be easy targets but given the right conditions they can put up more of a defense than might be expected. Humans are dangerous animals. Some more than others but every one of us is capable of violence if the right buttons get pushed. A lack of firearms cannot be reasonably be equated with being defenseless.