Race, politics guns: "My simplistic view of the two parties forty years ago: the Democrats wanted to include, despite the risks, and the Republicans, at least the Republicans I knew, wanted not so much to exclude, as to insulate. I didn't know any members of hate groups. None of my friends would be discourteous to blacks they passed on the street or in the store. ... Over the years, my views about the two parties evolved, along with the parties themselves. Eventually, the Democratic Party morphed into something I no longer felt I understood at all. The biggest change that puzzled me (and still does) was the gun issue. Why were so many of the Democratic candidates for all offices so dead-set on taking away my gun rights? Why would you take a large group of people who a) pay more taxes than the average American and b) have no criminal records, and alienate them so thoroughly? It made no sense."


North Carolina: Store owner returns fire, foils robbery: "Robbers are finding out that one North Raleigh jewelry store just isn't worth targeting, unless they're willing to risk being shot at for their trouble. Police are crediting Larry Dickerson, owner of Walls Jewelers, with foiling on Saturday yet another attempt to rob his store. Raleigh Police Lt. Hil Miller said two men walked into Walls Jewelers at 2923-A Brentwood Road at 1:23 p.m. Dickerson said he saw them acting suspiciously, with their hands in their pockets, so he slipped a pistol into his own pocket. One of the men pulled out a gun. 'When he wheeled around, I hit the floor,' Dickerson said. 'He fired three shots at me.' Dickerson, a retired Raleigh police officer who never fired a shot in more than 20 years of duty, said he returned fire."



Brazil: "Brazil's gun buy-back programme has been so successful that the government is considering extending it for another six months, Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos said on Monday. Since the nationwide programme was launched in mid-July, Brazilians have relinquished 160,000 guns and rifles, Bastos told Agencia Brasil, the government's official news agency. That number is double the 80,000 the government had originally estimated would be turned in by December 23, as part of a tough new gun law. ... Under the new law, gun owners have to reapply for permits and only police, people in high risk professions and those who can prove their lives are threatened will be eligible to receive new permits. Those caught carrying weapons without permits could face up to four years in prison."