0n the morning of September 3, 1998, Joseph Montgomery watched as two men entered his store. The 56-year-old owner of the store 500 Guns, located near the Indianapolis 500 Speedway, remembered them as having come in earlier.

The men walked to a glass case that held three shelves filled with handguns. "I want that one," said the taller of the two and pointed to a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver, which Montgomery reached down to remove from the display case. Montgomery later recalled that after his head came back up, one of them grabbed him by the neck as the other one stuck a 9x19 mm Ruger to his forehead. The man holding the gun said, "This is a stickup!"

Montgomery struggled to move away, but the man held him with a vicelike grip. The shop owner always carried a gun in a holster behind his back. He reached for the gun, a Heckler & Koch P-7, but the assailant who was choking him grabbed his hand. As they struggled for the gun, Montgomery felt his thumb being twisted, and grunted in pain as it snapped.

Suddenly, one of the robbers had the P-7. He stuck it in Montgomery's face and said, "Get on the floor!" Montgomery made up his mind that he was not going to lie helpless and let them put a bullet in the back of his head. He fought back as they tried to push him down.

During the struggle, the two men kept glancing at the plate-glass window near the door. If a customer walks in, Montgomery thought, he's dead. It was obvious that they had intended to quickly disable the businessman. They had not anticipated that he would fight back.

Unable to push Montgomery down, the robbers forced him to the rear of the store. One of the men pulled a knife. Before the robber could slash his throat, the shop owner grabbed the blade. He felt it slash his hand, and grimaced as he bled on the floor. The three men struggled past the storage room and into the private bathroom. That was as far as they could go.

Finally, the robbers wrestled Montgomery to the floor. The man with the P-7 held the shop owner at bay while the second man moved toward the camera high on the wall near the front door. As he attempted to remove the tape from the camera, he yelled, "Shoot him!" Montgomery recalled, "The first robber was trying to figure out how to use the P-7, which is the main reason I carry it. He was pointing it at me and squeezing the cocking lever, which is in front of the grip. He did it two or three times, and couldn't figure out how to shoot me with my own gun."

The robber glanced out the door, as if to ask his partner for help, and in that instant sealed his doom. Montgomery had prepared for just such an emergency. He'd hidden a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum in the vanity beneath the sink. The distracted robber shook the P-7 as if trying to rattle it as the shop owner wrenched open the vanity and pulled out the spare gun.

The robber looked at him, his eyes widening. Montgomery aimed and pulled the trigger. "Click!"

The gun had misfired, but before the robber could take advantage of the misfire, Montgomery fired three quick rounds. The small space echoed with the gunshots. Three bullets hit the robber in the chest and he slammed backward, falling against the wall.

Now the shop owner struggled to his feet. Using a bookcase as a shield, he watched the second robber stuffing his belt with guns. When Montgomery stepped out from behind the bookcase, the robber looked up, his face twisted in amazement.

Montgomery could read his mind. "This guy's supposed to be dead," he thought. The robber ducked behind the counter about 25 feet away, then stood up and aimed his gun at Montgomery, who then fired twice.

The robber stood straight up. Swaying back and forth, he suddenly collapsed to the floor. He'd been hit in the forehead and the bullet had passed through his skull.

Montgomery suddenly felt drained. He staggered to the telephone and dialed 9-1-1. Responding officers found both robbers dead, with guns stuck in their belts. Investigators quickly determined that Montgomery had acted in self-defense.

It didn't take long to identify the robbers. An investigation into their backgrounds revealed that both had numerous convictions for possession of drugs, theft, receiving stolen property, and resisting arrest. One of the robbers was also wanted for violation of parole.

Montgomery later described the P7 that he used to thwart the robbers. "It's a semi-automatic 9x19 mm and you squeeze the front of the grip to cock the gun. Then it's ready to fire. As long as you keep on squeezing, it will keep firing, but the minute you release it, it's decocked and won't fire. It's a very safe gun, which is why I carried it. Most people can't figure it out if they're not familiar with it:"