NC: Murder cases dropped after self-defense evidence: "A district court judge ruled Monday that there was insufficient evidence to send two murder cases to Superior Court, essentially bringing both of them to a close. Steve and Ronnie Ramirez were charged in March with fatally shooting a neighbor, but evidence presented Monday in Orange County District Court showed they were acting in self-defense, prosecutors say. Orange County deputies found Thaddeus Jerrod Harris dead on March 16 from several gunshot wounds at the Ramirez home at 2120 Gemena Road. Harris lived around the corner at 9004 Habitat Circle. A fuller picture of what happened the night of the shooting emerged at Monday's hearing. District Attorney Jim Woodall said there was evidence that a drug deal was in the works and that a man who came to the Ramirez home with Harris fired a gun before the fatal shotgun blasts. After the gun was pulled, Woodall said, one of the Ramirez brothers fetched a shotgun. Harris was inside the house when he was shot."


WA: Homeowner shoots man in self defense: "An overnight shooting lands one man in the hospital with multiple gun shot wounds and a normally quiet neighborhood with many unanswered questions. Police say a Saturday night house party in the 2500 block of W. Courtland got a little heated when one of the party's patrons got in a yelling match with the home's owner and his girlfriend. Dieter Meyer says he was hosting a barbecue for friends Saturday night when things got out of control. "One of the people invited a stranger, someone who had never been to the house before," said Meyer. According to Meyer, the stranger became belligerent, pulled out a knife and threatened Meyer's girlfriend on the front steps of his home. Meyer said he was frightened for both his and his girlfriend's welfare. Meyer, who holds a concealed weapons permit and always carries his gun, grabbed it and fired several shots at the man. Meyer says he's sorry he disrupted the neighborhood, but he's glad he had a gun to defend himself. "It was self defense," said Meyer. "It probably saved someone's life, it could have very well saved someone's life."


TN: Fairview parent convicted for gun at school: “A Fairview man’s response to a threat led to his conviction for possessing a weapon on school property and 20 days in jail. Tracy C. Clark, 37, said he had gotten into a verbal altercation with a couple on Jan. 30, 2006, in the parking lot at Westwood Elementary School after a recreation league basketball game. The argument started over whether Clark’s 9-year-old son had threatened to beat up Steven and Brandy Spann’s son. Clark said Steven Spann pulled out a knife and held it up as if threatening to stab him. Clark, who had a handgun carry permit, said he told Spann he had a gun, then pulled a 9 mm handgun from the center console of his pickup and put it on the driver’s seat. The gun was not loaded and never left its holster, according to Clark. ‘I never brandished it,’ Clark said Thursday during a bench trial. ‘I never showed it. I did not know what the best thing to do was.’ Williamson County Circuit Court Judge James G. Martin III said Clark may have been better off if he’d used the gun in self-defense.”


NY: Bullet bill is loaded for bear: “One of the most controversial measures to come before the County Legislature in some time is expected to draw an overflow crowd at a public hearing Tuesday night. At issue is a proposed law that would require gun shops to register sales of ammunition, a measure that has been condemned by gun proponents as a back-door means to register guns and learn what weapons people have. Supporters say it is merely an attempt to close a loophole in state law governing how ammunition.”