Texas knifeman shot: "A brand new security system may have saved the life of a Harris County homeowner early Monday. The incident happened around 2:30 a.m. in the 11200 block of Champion Woods. The man says he was sleeping when the alarm went off. He got up to investigate and said he found someone trying to get out through a garage window. The homeowner said he told the suspect to freeze, but instead the man turned and had something in his hand. That's when the homeowner shot him. The suspect later died at an area hospital. Deputies say the suspect had a knife. The case has been referred to a grand jury without charges.


Illinois: Charges dropped against man who shot suspected burglar : "Faced with the victim’s refusal to testify, McHenry County prosecutors today dismissed charges against a man accused of shooting a teenager he believed was breaking into his vehicle. The decision to drop the case against Jerry P. Sweat, 42, came after the 18-year-old authorities say he shot indicated he would assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination if called to testify about an incident for which he is charged with burglary. Sweat, of Marengo, faced charges of aggravated battery with a firearm and reckless discharge of a firearm stemming from a Dec. 3 incident in which, authorities say, he awoke at about 4 a.m. to find two teens breaking into a vehicle parked in his driveway. Instead of calling police, investigators said, Sweat retrieved a rifle, rushed out to his front porch and fired several shots at the burglary suspects, striking one three times. Sweat declined comment Monday, but his lawyer said his client maintains he did nothing wrong by shooting at the teens. “It would have been a waste of taxpayers’ money to bring this to trial because they cannot prove their case,” defense attorney Donald Franz said. “My client is not guilty.” The teen shot in the incident, Patrick K. Gaughan, of Marengo, suffered bullet wounds to the hip, shoulder and hand. Gaughan, however, declined to testify against Sweat Monday because McHenry County prosecutors have charged him with burglary and obstructing justice in the same incident." [A useful idea!]


Why we defend right to bear arms: "First, we don't want the government to be able to take our guns away from us, as totalitarian regimes have done elsewhere. The second reason is similar, but runs on a deeper current, one rarely discussed. We are aware that at some point in the future, we or our descendants may need to fight against our government or an invading force. I don't want to be melodramatic about this fear, but it is ingrained in American culture. It runs through our blood from the docks of Boston through Lexington and Bunker Hill. It was seared into our collective soul in Chancellorsville, Bull Run and Antietam. We watched and learned from victims of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin and Slobodan Milosevic. We studied the Quislings and the Vichy. We bled with the Jews and the Tutsis. We are bleeding now with the tribes being slaughtered in Darfur. Chief among all of these lessons is the certain knowledge that an evil government or an occupying force can come to power anywhere. It could happen here."