SCOTUS reverses conviction in drugs-for-gun case: ""The US Supreme Court has reversed the conviction of a Louisiana man who was charged with 'using' a gun during a drug deal after an agent handed the man the gun in a swap for drugs during an undercover sting operation. In a unanimous decision announced Monday, the high court said the federal gun law is designed to prevent criminals from 'using' their own guns during crimes. When federal agents introduce unloaded firearms into an undercover investigation, the suspect should not be held criminally liable for the presence of the gun at the scene of a crime, the court ruled. The Supreme Court's primary authority for its decision was the English language. Writing for the court, Justice David Souter says the government's defense of its reading of the law 'would trump ordinary English. The government may say that a person 'uses' a firearm simply by receiving it in a barter transaction, but no one else would,' Justice Souter writes."




California Woman Who Shot Intruder 3 Times Talks To KNBC: "A female homeowner who shot a male intruder in her back yard in October 2006 spoke to KNBC's Laurel Erickson on Wednesday, one day after a jury found the man guilty of all charges. Nadine Teter shot Michael Lugo twice in the stomach and once in the leg after he broke into her Canyon Country home. Lugo broke the lock on Teter's door and barged in. She fled to the back yard with her gun, according to police. "He was coming at me. He was yelling. I shot him to stop him," Teter said. "He went down. He got back up. Came back at me. I shot him again. I shot him again, and he turned around and jumped back over the fence. (He) disappeared." Teter testified against Lugo and his mother, Cynthia Brandon, who drove the getaway car during the Oct. 18, 2006, attack. Both were convicted Tuesday. While Teter talked to law enforcement that night, Brandon flagged down a deputy heading to Teter. She told him her son was bleeding to death.... Teter said she thinks that every woman should carry a gun. "Never in a million years, did I think I would use (the gun) -- never. And whatever higher power, whatever gave me the strength to pull that trigger ... You're looking at him or me. My life or his life. I was not going to get raped. I was not going to get murdered. There was no way -- and I didn't," Teter said."


The follies of gun control: "When it comes to restricting private individuals' Second Amendment rights, it seems that the world must turn upside down to justify gun control. Criminals need to obey the law, limited human beings need to be present everywhere and respond to anything, inanimate objects need to assume a volition of their own, and parents all of a sudden need to become totally oblivious to what their children are doing. Yes, all of these astounding assumptions are behind the common case for gun control. And, as logic dictates, either the assumptions themselves must be true, or the arguments made on their basis must be discarded as illegitimate."