IL: No firearms charges against woman, 87: "An 87-year-old woman who fatally shot a would-be intruder will not be charged with a crime, even though she did not legally own the gun, authorities said Monday. On Feb. 7, Jacksie Mae King fired several shots through the front door of her house after she woke up about 2 a.m. to the sounds of someone trying to break in. One bullet hit Larry Tillman, 49, who was on the other side of the door, standing on King's enclosed porch. He lay dead on the porch in the 2100 block of Gaty Avenue for four hours before he was found by King's daughter, who came to bring breakfast about 6 a.m. Meanwhile, King stayed inside clutching the pistol. 'She was justified in using deadly force to defend herself against the threat of deadly force,' said Robert B. Haida, the St. Clair County state's attorney. King's daughter gave her the .32-caliber Colt revolver two months earlier after a man broke into King's house in December. That intruder beat her and stole some of her things. In both incidents, the telephone lines to King's house were cut, and security bars were removed from a side window. Tillman's criminal record is extensive and goes back to 1979. It includes at least two convictions for residential burglary and a robbery conviction."


A salute to guns and rights: "She's a nurse who likes target shooting and teaches gun safety classes. He's an engineer and deer hunter. When in Michigan, she'll pack a .357 Smith & Wesson for personal protection, while he sees no need to carry a concealed weapon. 'I'm usually with her,' Don Burns said, pointing to his wife, Christine. 'And she's a better shot.' The Burnses, from the Upper Peninsula town of Channing, are your quiet, ordinary, card-carrying members of the National Rifle Association -- and proud of it. Friday, the Burnses, and thousands of others like them, trooped through the Midwest Airlines Center as the NRA convention opened its three-day stand in Milwaukee."