Maine: Woman, 77, escorts armed intruder from home at gunpoint: "Vanessa Gatchell, 50, was home watching television on South Princeton Road when she heard footsteps in the hallway at about 4:30 p.m., according to court documents made available Monday... Vanessa Gatchell went into the hallway and found Moore armed with a gun and a knife just standing there, the affidavit said.... The woman asked him to leave and said no one would have to know he had been there, but Moore declined to leave, the affidavit said. Eventually Doris Gatchell returned home. Moore hid the firearm from view as Doris Gatchell entered the front room, the affidavit said. The two women then went into the kitchen, and Vanessa Gatchell told her mother that Moore had a gun and she “thought he was going to shoot them both,” the affidavit said. Doris Gatchell retrieved her own gun and, according to the court documents, went into the front room and stood behind Moore’s chair... Doris Gatchell told Moore she had a gun and ordered him to leave, the affidavit said. “Mrs. Gatchell escorted the defendant out the door. Once on the porch [Moore] dropped his gun and then picked it up again. It was only at that point that Mrs. Gatchell saw the gun,” the court documents said... Police surrounded Moore’s house and tried to contact him, according to St. Louis, but there was no response. After about 90 minutes, however, Moore stepped out onto his front porch to smoke a cigarette and that was when police arrested him and took him to jail, St. Louis said. Officers found the firearm in Moore’s garage and later recovered the knife from the Gatchell residence, the chief deputy said... According to the affidavit, Moore has a long criminal history"


Texas robbers shot by woman from her bedroom: "A woman opened fire when two robbery suspects broke into her Spring home on Sunday, KPRC Local 2 reported. Harris County Precinct 4 deputy constables said the 34-year-old was alone inside the home in the Timberlane subdivision on Briarcreek Boulevard near Cades Cove Drive at about 6 a.m.Investigators said the woman opened fire when the attackers burst through her bedroom door. "She's in her bedroom, locked in her bedroom. And she could hear them rustling through the rooms about the house. She grabbed her weapon and you know, held up inside her bedroom. It wasn't until they forced their way into her bedroom, they kicked the bedroom door in. She fired several shots at the suspects," said Lt. Jeff Stauber with the Harris County Sheriff's Department. Investigators said Gerson Jonathon Linares and Shalom Mendoza, both 17, were wounded. Detectives said the teenagers, who live in the neighborhood, ran out of the home and called for help, claiming to be the victims of a shooting. "Through our investigation, we were able to tie them back to this incident on Briarcreek," Stauber said. Investigators said the pair has admitted that they were involved in the crime".


TN: Gun rights laws expanded : "“Among the new laws is one that would … exempt from federal regulation guns and ammunition made in Tennessee and kept within its borders … the law exempting Tennessee from federal gun regulations, while having little immediate effect, may have broader implications down the road. It comes as part of a states’ rights movement that aims to test the limits of federal power. The Tennessee bill is nearly identical to one signed into law in Montana and similar to ones under consideration in other states. Since Montana’s law does not take effect until Oct. 1, the one in Tennessee, which takes effect July 1, could become the first test case in the courts.”


PA: Eight cities try victim disarmament despite suit threat : “Eight municipalities in Pennsylvania have approved their own gun control ordinances in an effort to curb firearms violence despite the threat of lawsuits from gun rights advocates who say such measures are illegal. Last week, Lancaster’s council unanimously approved an ordinance requiring owners to report lost or stolen guns. The city joins Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Reading, Easton, Pottsville and Wilkinsburg. … The measure is aimed at curbing illegal guns sales by not allowing legal buyers who sell to felons to claim that their guns were lost or stolen when the firearms are used in crimes.”