PA: Shooter faces drug charges: "Johnstown police and Cambria County prosecutors are investigating whether a Johnstown man was justified in using deadly force when he shot and killed a man believed to be attempting to break into his apartment Sunday evening in the city’s West End. Until that issue is resolved, the police are not filing any shooting-related charges against 27-year-old Andrew Herdman, District Attorney Patrick Kiniry said Monday. However, Herdman has been arrested on drug charges for the large amount of heroin found inside his apartment. The police found a large amount of heroin – packaged into 259 folded, wax paper “stamps” for street sales. Kiniry estimated the street value at $5,000. The victim was identified as 29-year-old David Edward Turner of Johnstown’s Moxham section. Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski said that Turner died of a single gunshot wound to the chest. A report of the shooting was called to Cambria 911 by the mother of a juvenile girl who had been inside the apartment with Herdman. The girl had called her mother after the shooting, Kiniry said. When police arrived, they found Turner collapsed on the floor on an outside porch at the entrance to the apartment, officials said. Herdman had shot through a metal door, and the slug hit Turner in the chest, it was reported... Turner had two criminal convictions in county court and was placed on probation for 14 years on charges of criminal mischief and receiving stolen property. He was ordered to pay costs, fines and restitution totaling more than $17,000."


Tellers botch attempted robbery at Crofton bank: "Quick-thinking tellers trapped a gun-toting, masked man between two doors of a Crofton bank during an attempted robbery this morning. The man eventually shot his way out of the Arundel Federal Savings Bank, but didn’t get away for good. County police caught up with the suspect and his alleged accomplice within minutes on Route 50 near Interstate 97. A witness told police he saw a man walking on Davidsonville Road just after 10:30 a.m. and watched as the man put a ski mask over his face, cut through a small parking lot and headed to the front entrance of the bank at 2046 Davidsonville Road, said Justin Mulcahy, a county police spokesman. The man walked into the bank and the front door shut behind him, Mulcahy said. But he had another door to go through before he could reach the bank’s lobby. Employees, tipped off by the man’s ski mask and his handgun, refused to “buzz” him past the second door and then tapped a button to lock the main entrance to the bank.


NRA Appeals Ruling Blocking Guns in National Parks: "The National Rifle Association on Friday appealed a federal court ruling that blocked a Bush administration policy allowing people to carry concealed, loaded guns in national parks. The decision, issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, halted a regulation from the waning days of the Bush administration. The rule, which took effect in January, allowed visitors to carry a loaded gun into a park or wildlife refuge as long as the person had a permit for a concealed weapon and the state where the park or refuge was located allowed concealed firearms. Previously, guns in parks had been severely restricted. Chris W. Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist, said the group will pursue all legal and legislative options. The NRA had pushed for the Bush rule change and was granted legal standing in a lawsuit brought by gun-control advocates and environmental groups. "We didn't give up in the fight to change the old, outdated rule and we are going to pursue every legal and legislative avenue to defend the American people's right to self-defense," Cox said Friday."


CA: Proposed easing of concealed-weapons law draws fire: "What issue could unite a Republican lawmaker from Southern California and a 46-year-old lesbian from Natomas? Guns, of course. A bill introduced in the state Assembly last month aims to make it easier for Californians to obtain a concealed weapons permit. Assembly Bill 357 – yes, the number is right – would change a state law that currently gives county sheriffs or chiefs of police final say in who can carry a gun. By stripping the local law enforcement discretion, the bill would mandate that any Californian who passes a training course and demonstrates "good moral character" can tuck a pistol into his or her waistband. Even though the bill won't be heard in committee for a few weeks, it has raised ire among law enforcement officials, including Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness. Police chiefs and sheriffs can be more effective at screening out people who shouldn't have concealed weapons, he said." [But some of them screen out most people]