Florida teacher shoots and kills intruder: "A Hillsborough County middle school teacher shot and killed a burglar who burst into her home Friday morning. Sheriff's deputies say 62-year-old Juanita Enzor was in her bedroom around 5 a.m. when a man kicked in the front door. Detectives say when the man confronted Enzor, she grabbed her gun and fired, shooting the man in the chest. The bleeding, injured suspect then started attacking Enzor, but she managed to escape and run from her home. Deputies arrived at the scene on Kirkland Drive and found the suspect dead inside. Enzor was slightly injured in the attack. She is a 6th grade teacher at Memorial Middle School in Tampa. The suspect has been identified as 40-year-old Mark C. Johnson [photo above]".


Kentucky Deer Hunter Shoots Bear: "A deer hunter in Harlan County fatally shot a black bear with his muzzleloader after the animal came too close to his hunting blind last Saturday morning. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Conservation Officer Shane Amburgey determined the hunter, 30-year-old Bobby Koger of Cumberland, acted in self-defense due to the proximity of the bear. "He said the bear came right to his blind and almost stuck his head inside when he shot it," Amburgey said. "We found blood from the bear within a foot of the blind." A blind is a type of camouflaged tent used by hunters to conceal themselves from game. No charges were filed in the case. Another hunter at the scene, 31-year-old James Forester of Cumberland, shot the bear a second time, in an attempt to protect his friend. Investigators found the dead 250-pound male black bear approximately 700-800 yards away. The incident occurred around 9 a.m. Oct. 18 on Black Mountain, located near Gap Branch in northeastern Harlan County. Koger told investigators that he initially saw two bears in the clearing that he was hunting. Koger said one of the bears started trotting toward him when he started yelling at Forester, who was asleep at a gas well approximately 50 yards away, according to Koger's statement. Koger said he started yelling at the bear, but it did not stop coming. Koger told investigators he shot the bear from 3 feet away."


When a revolver is a good idea: "A policeman's finger stopped his gun being fired at his colleagues when it was seized by a man they were trying to arrest, a court has been told. James Lyle Rakatau, 25, fled police when they tried to arrest him in Melbourne on November 14, last year over an outstanding warrant from Western Australia, the Herald Sun reported. The Supreme Court was told senior detectives Matthew Flood, Travis Merlo and Adam Radley gave chase until Sen-Det Flood tackled Rakatau as he tried to climb a fence. Prosecutor Robert Barry said during the struggle that followed Rakatau got hold of Sen-Det Flood's gun from his holster and yelled: "Now you freeze ... ". Sen-Det Flood got both hands on the revolver and held the cylinder so it wouldn't spin and fire. His finger was jammed between the hammer and primer when Rakatau tried to fire more shots as Sen-Dets Radley and Merlo went to intervene. Mr Barry said it was only Sen-Det Flood's index finger that stopped the weapon firing as Rakatau tried a number of times to pull the trigger. Rakatau was eventually subdued with capsicum spray. He pleaded guilty to two counts of reckless conduct endangering life"


Peaceable armed citizens: "Don B. Kates is well known and highly regarded in Second Amendment legal and academic circles, having been a constitutional law professor, a criminologist and a prolific author of scholarly works. "Do guns cause crime?" is a question he's explored in great detail, including analyzing "100+ years of homicide studies." His conclusions? "[F]ar from being ordinary people, 'the vast majority of persons involved in life-threatening violence have a long criminal record with many prior contacts with the justice system.'...it cannot be true that possession of firearms causes ordinary people to murder -- for murderers are virtually never ordinary, but rather are extreme aberrants with life histories of crime, psychopathology and/or substance abuse." Estimates are, the current membership of the NRA stands at around 4 million. Can we agree that they are probably one of the most heavily-armed civilian populations on the planet? How many drive-by shootings do you think were committed last year by NRA members? How many liquor store robberies, home invasions, campus shoot-ups...? How about over the past 10 years? The past 20...? You see where I'm going with this. Frequently put down by their political opponents as blood-thirsty, trigger-happy yahoos, this demographic of armed-to-the-teeth gun enthusiasts is one of the most peaceable on the planet"