With gun sales surging following Colorado’s “Dark Knight Rises” tragedy, we wanted to show some respect to people who have recently managed to fight off robbers and attackers using objects and strategies other than guns.

Special hat-tip to the elderly vigilantes on this list whom the young tend to underestimate.

1. Pen

In May 81-year-old John Dowe fought a masked raider off with the pen he was using to complete a Sudoku puzzle. The fancy raider was also dressed in a trilby hat, long coat and scarf. Police arrested him when they spotted him trying to ditch the costume.
(Daily Mail)

2. Plastic stool

When a robber brandishing an eight-inch blade broke into 52 year-old Akbar Ali’s corner store in West Lothian last May, Mr. Ali grabbed a nearby plastic folding stool and repeatedly hit the robber until he ran away.
(Daily Mail)

3. Kitchen pot

Legally blind 71 year-old Tom Guzzi fought off two gun-bearing attackers posing as gas company workers with a kitchen pot. After the attackers “repeatedly struck him with a gun, used a Taser, and beat him with a VCR,” Guzzi yelled “John, call the police!”, tricking the criminals into thinking they weren’t alone. He then chased them upstairs, where he grabbed a kitchen pot and beat them away.
(HuffPo)

4. Handbag

A badass old lady in a red coat ran to beat off robbers trying to break into a Rolex store last year. Inspiring other standers-by to help, the woman chased the thugs until someone tipped their moped and caught caught at least one.
(GREALDO21)

5. “I don’t have any money”

A Cadillac-driving robber walked into an accountant office at a mall two weeks ago and passed an employee a handwritten note claiming he had a gun and demanding money. The employee told him she couldn’t hand him money because the company didn’t collect money from customers, which the robber believed. He left the store.
(Gwinett Daily Post, Shutterstock)

6. “I dont’ speak English”

When that same cadillac-driving robber left the accountant office he walked two doors down to a gift shop, where he presented the same note. When the clerk pretended she didn’t speak english, the robber left once more and drove away, while another employee managed to scribble down his license plate.
(Gwinett Daily Post)

7. Canes

When 78 year-old Lowell Handley awoke to a stranger trying to steal his television, he grabbed his cane and hit the intruder on his head and shoulders. The robber grabbed the TV and left, but not before a neighbor, who heard a commotion, recorded his license plate. Hadley had his TV back within 30 minutes.
(10TV)

8. Broom

A jewelry shopkeeper fought off a knife-wielding robber in England last year using only a broom.
(Guardian)

9.Kung Fu

Priscilla Deng of Vancouver fought off two teenagers with Kung Fu face punches last month after they interrupted her run by groping her.
(KATU)

10. Mangoes and apples

Just last week, an 80 year-old woman fought off two robbers, 22 and 24, at her daughter’s market by hurling mangoes and a bag of apples at them. Even though one of the men whacked her over the head with a gun, she chased them outside. Both robbers were arrested.
(Daily Mail)