Jury finds Kansas man not guilty of murder: "Willie Rodriguez asked for it, he got it, and a jury Friday exonerated the man who did it. Deliberating barely two hours, the jury of 10 women and two men acquitted Judd Stephen Hurst of second-degree murder for gunning down Rodriguez, 19, in a gun-waving confrontation last year alongside a dark road outside Toppenish. In a separate verdict, the jury ruled the shooting was justified under a state law that protects the right of self-defense and ordered that Hurst, 27, receive reimbursement in the form of civil damages. A dollar figure will be decided later. Yakima County Superior Court Judge Jim Lust signed papers on the spot freeing Hurst from jail, where he had spent the past 14 months awaiting trial. A related gun charge was also dismissed.... The shooting on Aug. 28, 2005, culminated a confrontation that began at a party attended by Hurst, who is from Overland Park, Kan., and was visiting friends in the area. Witnesses testified Rodriguez, a member of a reputed street gang called the Outlaws, became angry when Hurst and a friend offered to give a woman named Angelica Gopher a ride home. Gopher was Rodriguez's off-and-on girlfriend, and they had a child together. Rodriguez pursued the Hurst car, forcing it off McDonald Road. Rodriguez's 2-year-old daughter was in the back seat with Gopher. Witnesses testified Rodriguez got out and began threatening Hurst and the other occupants of the car with a .25-caliber chrome-plated pistol. Hurst then grabbed a Glock semiautomatic pistol from under his car seat and opened fire at close range, firing 13 bullets in just a few seconds. Rodriguez was hit 11 times, including five or six times at almost point-blank range after he collapsed to the ground."


Fruitcake Mayor: "The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today responded to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's latest outrage -- suggesting that citizens in his city don't need gun permits -- by reminding the anti-gun rights mayor that "self defense isn't a privilege, it's a right." Bloomberg announced on his radio program that he wants to reduce the number of people who have concealed handgun permits in the Big Apple. He told his radio audience, "If you tell me you need a gun permit, you're telling me you don't think the NYPD can do a good job in protecting you. Most people, I don't see any reason why they need it." "There goes Mikey again," CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb declared. "He still thinks there's a Bill of 'Needs' instead of a Bill of Rights. Where did he get the arrogant notion that people need to ask him to exercise their rights, especially the right of self-defense? "But more importantly," he continued, "Bloomberg is fooling himself while he's trying to fool everyone else because he knows that police cannot be everywhere, and they are typically not around when a crime is committed. Even police will admit they can't prevent most crimes from happening. "Bloomberg doesn't care about any of this, of course, because he's got around-the-clock security," Gottlieb observed"