OH: Homeowner shoots burglar: "Authorities said a Springfield man came face to face with a burglar and ended up shooting him. Alvin Cobb said his wife noticed that their garage door was open, and when he went investigate, the burglar charged toward him. Cobb said, `Whoever he was he was right on top of me. He was at me attacking me and had his hand drawn back. I don't want to kill anybody, but I don't want anybody to hurt me either.' According to Cobb, everything happened quickly. He said he did not have enough time to think. He was able to lift his arms to try to and defend himself and that is when a handgun he was carrying fired. `When he hit me the gun went off,' Cobb said. `I know I shot him because he bled on me.' The intruder took off, leaving a trail of blood around the block."


CA: Sheriff goes off half-cocked: "I've been appalled at Sheriff Sandra Hutchens' hostility to the Second Amendment, as she has tried to revoke the concealed-carry permits of law-abiding Orange County gun owners. But nothing prepared me for what happened at the Board of Supervisors meeting last Tuesday, when the sheriff displayed not only her hostility to gun rights, but her deep disdain for gun owners themselves and a clear disregard for open government and the First Amendment. Based on a rumor that gun-rights activists would show up to protest her policies by carrying unloaded guns in holsters, the sheriff sent more than 20 deputies to the public board meeting, where they searched, watched, followed and questioned those residents who showed up to speak out against the sheriff's new-and-not-so-improved plan to move up the expiration date of gun permits."


WI: AG won't say whether open carry is legal : "As conflicts over of the open carry of firearms mushroom in the state, Wisconsin attorney general J.B. Van Hollen is declining to issue a legal opinion about whether the practice is legal. In a Nov. 6, 2008, letter to then state Rep. Terry Musser . deputy attorney general Raymond Taffora acknowledged a number of requests for just such an opinion, as well as a growing number of arrests for carrying firearms in plain view, mostly on the charge of disorderly conduct. On behalf of an unnamed constituent, Musser had specifically asked for an opinion about the open carrying of firearms for personal defense, but Taffora told him there were prudent legal reasons for the attorney general not to get involved."


Russia: Paper wants journalists armed : "Because law enforcement agencies in Russia increasingly have not been able to guarantee the security of journalists there, Aleksandr Lebedev, the co-owner of `Novaya gazeta' has asked the FSB to allow his journalists to carry weapons to protect themselves as they go about their entirely legitimate business. Lebedev's request came only two days after someone shot down in cold blood on the streets of Moscow `Novaya gazeta' journalist Anatasiya Baburova together with attorney Stanislav Markelov .. And while at one level, this request seems an entirely reasonable response to the rising tide of violence in the Russian Federation, at another, it is an extremely disturbing sign of the decay of any semblance of public order."