Pa.: Shooting of 2 in Fayette ruled self-defense: "A Fayette County man will not be prosecuted for shooting two men who banged on his door in the middle of the night last week because his actions were determined to be self-defense. Ronald Kollar, 60, shot the men at his North Union residence when he said he heard one of them say, "If you don't open the door I'll shoot you," state police said. According to a police news release, at 1:45 a.m. Thursday Samuel Kiss and Raymond Foster allegedly entered Mr. Kollar's enclosed porch and banged on his door and rang the doorbell. Upon hearing the threat of a gun, Mr. Kollar said he took a gun from his bedroom and opened the kitchen door that led to the porch area. He said the two men reached into their hooded sweatshirts, and, fearing for his safety, he fired his gun. Mr. Kiss, 21, of Uniontown, suffered three gunshot wounds, two to the abdomen and one to the left arm. Mr. Foster, 25, also of Uniontown, was shot once in his right side. Police said the injured men fled from the scene and were driven to Uniontown Hospital by a juvenile female who was waiting in a car outside. Mr. Kiss had surgery there and then was transported to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va. Mr. Foster was transported to UPMC Presbyterian for surgery. They are both expected to recover."


Jury finds NY man not guilty of murder, manslaughter: "Pierre Townsend was found not guilty of both murder and a secondary count of manslaughter Thursday as the trial for the murder of Dustin Smith came to a close in Rensselaer County Court. Townsend, 20, was convicted on a third count of unlawful weapons possession, however. Both attorneys said that issue, which Townsend presented during his testimony Tuesday - testifying that Smith pulled a gun on him and fired, and Townsend fired behind him without looking as he ran away to aid his escape - weighed heavily in jurors' minds as they deliberated. Townsend was the only witness who testified Smith had a gun at the scene. No gun, not even Townsend's, was found by police. "There was no way for us to disprove it because there was simply no evidence it ever existed," Glass said of the second gun. Roberts said that, in addition to his client's testimony, it was a lack of evidence in the case that swayed the jury. He repeatedly hammered the investigation of the case by police and the prosecution during the trial, emphasizing a lack of scientific testing."


MI: Judge sentences dumb kid for robbing store where owner shot him: "Edward B. Allen Jr., an 18-year-old Saginaw man who robbed a convenience store near his home only to have the owner shoot him in the arm, will spend the next four years and seven months to 15 years in prison. Allen, 18, received his penalty Thursday on charges of armed robbery with a gun, carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent, possessing a short-barreled shotgun and two counts of possessing a firearm while committing a felony at the Fast Lane Party Store, 1200 State. Allen, who lived at 2525 Benjamin, pleaded guilty to the April 2 crimes. He has recovered from the gunshot wound. The judge told Allen he put people in fear when he went to the store with a gun demanding money. Police said the owner recognized Allen from the neighborhood and as a store customer."


Guns don't kill people, governments do: "First, one of the adages I'm fond of quoting is: `To the person who has only a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.' Politicians, bureaucrats, and other government thugs and con-artists fall into this category pretty consistently. Because the one real tool government types have is the government's claimed monopoly on initiatory force - that is, the `Government Guns' - they tend to resort to violence or threat of violence in almost every situation, no matter how inappropriate. Oh, they try to cloak the iron fist in velvet gloves, but they never do forget about that iron fist - even though they want you to pretend it's not there."