NH: House reverses course, supports self-defense: "Gun owners and advocates carried the day in the House on Wednesday. In a surprise turnaround, the House supported legislation it defeated last month that would give people more leeway to use guns to defend themselves in public places. It also voted for a bill to bar the state from taking guns or ammunition from people during a state of emergency. 'Nothing should chip away at our freedom,' argued Rep. Lynne Ober, R-Hudson. If weapons had been confiscated centuries ago, 'we might have been singing God Save the Queen,' she said."


TN: Disabled man fights off home invaders: "A disabled Red Bank man foiled a home invasion early Thursday morning by getting off four shots at a man busting in his bedroom window. Red Bank Police Lt. Jim Kyle said the incident happened at 1:30 a.m. at 203 Euclid Ave. He said David McCutcheon was asleep in his bed when he heard his bedroom window breaking, then saw a masked man coming through the window. Mr. McCutcheon reached for a .32-caliber revolver and began firing, causing the masked man to make a hasty retreat."


Patriots Day: "I grew up in Massachusetts in the 1950s. April 19th was celebrated each year as Patriots Day. The holiday commemorates the ride of Paul Revere, and the battles of Lexington and Concord in the colony which birthed the American Revolution. ... Growing up in New England in the fifties, there seemed to be no great public concern about guns. At a fairly tender age, I was responsible enough to be entrusted with a BB gun, which I used to protect the household from marauding tin cans, birds in the cornfield, and squirrels robbing the bird feeders. A few years later, I enrolled in a neighboring town's NRA Youth program, shooting .22 rifles in the basement of the armory. A young boy with an air rifle or .22 drew little interest from passersby on the country roads along which I'd walk on the way to the range, or to an abandoned quarry where I often practiced. Even the local police would wave and drive on by."