Gun ownership up, crime down: "Many times in the past I have told you that when gun ownership goes up and right to carry laws gets passed, then crime goes down. Well, this last year was proof in the pudding, so to speak. Last year Americans purchased 4.7 million new firearms. 40 states have now adopted right to carry laws for their citizens. This year looks like it will even be a better year for purchase of new firearms. The greatest increase in firearms purchase last year was handguns which went up 3%. Long guns sales were up 1.8%. Ammunition sales were up 3.5%. I am told by the different wholesale people I now deal with from the firearms store that these numbers will be higher this year. Many of the manufacturers like Taurus are way behind on orders, with some several months behind. Those who push gun control tell us that crime goes up and suicide goes up with more firearms ownership. This was not the case last year. Gun crime, suicides and firearms related accidents declined last year. According to the FBI, there were 339,280 firearms crimes reported in 2005, which is down 2.4% from 2004 and 7% from 1998. The Center for Disease Control reported that firearm suicides were down 1.1%, to a reported 16,907, and they have declined 1.8% since 1998. The National Safety Council said, accidental firearms fatalities, which tied the 2004 figure at an all-time low of 700. That is down 19.2% since 1998".


No defense for Vang: "An attorney for a man serving life prison terms for the shooting deaths of six Wisconsin deer hunters says he has found no basis for an appeal. The decision from assistant state public defender Patrick Donnelly, appointed to handle the appeal after Chai Soua Vang was convicted last September, was announced Friday. Donnelly is to file his report next month with the state Court of Appeals, which will review his decision. Vang, 37, from St. Paul, can contest the determination if he wishes. Prosecutors had said a group of hunters in Sawyer County confronted Vang over trespassing in a tree stand before Vang shot six of them to death and wounded two others during the deer hunt in November 2004. Vang, a Hmong immigrant, testified at his Circuit Court trial that he shot the hunters in self-defense, alleging one of them fired a shot in his direction after they shouted racial epithets and cursed at him. The two survivors of the shooting testified that Vang had begun walking away from the confrontation when he turned and opened fire. Vang was sentenced to six consecutive life terms plus 165 years in prison.


Young Mississippi thief shot: "It was about dawn on June 17, when, police say, Marcus Yokem dropped the hammer on a 15-year-old in his yard. Yokem told police when they arrived that his house, equipped with burglar bars, had been burglarized the night before and he had heard noises indicating the same thief (or a different one) was trying to get in again. Evidence included a broken window. It also showed the teen was fleeing across Yokem's yard. Wounded in the back, the teen slumped against a fence. He was taken from there to a hospital. Yokem was taken to jail, charged with aggravated assault. Yokem was held without bond for four days before being released on his own recognizance by a Jackson judge. Now, police say, it will be up to prosecutors or a grand jury to decide whether the homeowner faces a trial jury and up to 20 years in prison.... Yokem might get a pass from the DA or from a jury - no one I know would like to see him sent to prison - but shooting a 15-year-old running away would not pass "the letter of the law.""