0n the morning of June 4, 1998, Michael Merz was in the upstairs office of his Boca Raton, Florida, home when he heard a thump at the front door. Merz lived in the upscale Isles of Boca subdivision and had been at work on his computer. He first thought the noise was made by a UPS deliveryman dropping off a package, but when he heard a loud crash he knew someone was breaking in.

Merz, who owns several guns, had just moved them downstairs to clean them. In a recent interview, he said, "When I realized someone was breaking in, I walked down the hall to the bedroom. I began going through the drawers looking for a gun because I thought I might have one left up there."

The homeowner's adrenalin was pumping, but he managed to remain quiet as he searched for one of his guns. When he couldn't find it, he thought he had time to walk downstairs and get his SIG P230 from the kitchen. He didn't think the intruder was in the house at that point.

As Merz started down the stairs, he saw the intruder coming out of a bedroom holding a cordless telephone. Both men looked at each other in surprise, then the intruder bolted for the front door. It went through the homeowner's mind that this man was probably responsible for several unsolved burglaries in the neighborhood. He needed to be caught and put in jail.

Merz dove off the stairs and tackled the man. They fell into the kitchen, then wrestled into the garage. In the violent struggle, two of Merz's motorcycles were knocked to the floor.

Merz recalled, "In the few minutes that I was looking for a gun, he had already staked out the downstairs. He had unlocked the door leading into the garage so he had another means of escape, and had already put my car keys in his pocket. Police conjectured later that what he was going to do was load my car up and leave with as much as he could steal."

As they rolled across the floor, the intruder grabbed Merz by the throat and began choking him. The homeowner kicked away and landed on top of the intruder.

"He was almost as big as me, so I couldn't manhandle him," Merz recalled, "but I could sort of dictate which way the fight went."

As they fought their way back into the kitchen, Merz thought of the gun he'd secured in the cupboard above the stove, but there was no way he could get to it. The two men struggled back into the living room. At one point, Merz was on his back, and the intruder was choking him again. Finally, Merz turned the tables and was able to reach up and get both hands around the intruder's throat.

"I was squeezing with everything I had," Merz remembered. "We wrestled back into the kitchen. By this time I'd had my hands around his throat for a long time and we were both exhausted. I knew it was going to take him a few seconds to recuperate so I jumped up and grabbed my gun."

Merz leveled the barrel between the man's eyes.

"His eyes were big as saucers," Merz recalled. "He went from being aggressive and violent to completely submissive. He couldn't have been more cooperative. He wouldn't even look at me. He just looked down."

The homeowner reached for the telephone and dialed 9-1-1. When he told the dispatcher that he'd captured a burglar in his home, she told Merz to order the man to put his hands behind his head.

Not taking any chances, the homeowner went her one better.

"Lay face-down and put your hands behind your back!" Merz commanded. The man quickly complied.

The operator asked Merz to find out the name of the intruder. Merz reached into his back pocket and retrieved a billfold. It was obviously stolen. The driver's license showed a middle-aged man, but the intruder was in his early twenties.

"What's your name?" Merz asked.

The intruder was so frightened of the gun that he gave his real name,

Michael Ratliff. The dispatcher ran the name through the police computer base of convicted felons and told Merz that Ratliff had two warrants out for his arrest.

Because a knife was found in Ratliff's pocket, he was charged with armed burglary. He was later convicted and sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison. He had a history of arrests for burglary, drug possession and grand theft. A few minutes before breaking into Merz's house, Ratliff had attempted to burglarize a nearby home, but had been scared away when the homeowner came to investigate.

Merz, who had used a handgun several years before to frighten away another burglar, feels that the Second Amendment is an issue that should never be up for debate. "To me, it's mind-boggling that people would want to take firearms from law-abiding Americans," he said.