FL: Homeowner shoots would-be burglar: "When Michael Allsop heard his bedroom window shatter, police said, he ran into his bathroom and called 911. But when he saw two hands reach into his house, he put down the phone and picked up his 9mm pistol. The 59-year-old homeowner opened fire Wednesday morning, wounding a would-be burglar. The burglar ran away. Minutes later, a man showed up at Bayfront Medical Center with two gunshot wounds. St. Petersburg police said that's where they arrested Michael Patterson, 30, on a charge of burglary of an occupied structure. "I'm glad he's alive," Allsop said. "Maybe he'll tell his friends not to come back. Allsop has had plenty of experience with burglars. Wednesday's break-in was the sixth burglary reported at his home at 1926 Seminole Blvd. S in the five years he's lived there, police records show. Allsop said he heard a knock at the door about 9:40 a.m. but didn't answer it because he wasn't expecting anyone. Then he heard the bedroom window shatter. He fired three or four times when he saw the burglar trying to enter, police said. Under Florida law, people can defend themselves with deadly force if they have a "reasonable fear of imminent peril" from someone "unlawfully and forcefully" entering their residence. Patterson of 2464 14th Ave. S was treated at the hospital for gunshot wounds to his hand and upper body, then was booked into the Pinellas County Jail. In 2007, he pleaded no contest to charges of grand theft and larceny, court records say."


Georgia: Decatur Man Shoots Burglary Suspect: "A Decatur homeowner will not be charged for shooting an intruder Wednesday morning. DeKalb County police said 40-year-old Dexter Tucker was justified in shooting a 17-year-old who broke into his home. Tucker said he was asleep when he heard knocking at the front door. The Decatur man said he peered through the shades but didn’t answer the door. Tucker said he saw a young man run to the back door and that’s when he grabbed his gun. “I couldn’t believe he was kicking in my door and it took him like four kicks to get in so by the time he got in I was ready for him,” Tucker said. Tucker said he shot the intruder three times, striking him once in the thigh. The homeowner said he then saw another young man running away. Neighbor Vermail Harris said she saw someone running away and getting into a car down the road. “He ended up hopping in a car so I gave [the police] a description of the vehicle he got in and they found him later. Tucker said the teens left their car when they fled. Police later arrested a 17-year-old male and a 16-year-old girl in a stolen car not far away."


Texas: Suspect killed in home invasion gunbattle: "A north Harris County man shot a pair of suspected home invaders on Friday, killing one and wounding the other, during a gunbattle outside his house, officials said. The homeowner was also wounded, authorities said. “He was shot by one of the suspects,” said Sgt. Craig Clopton with the Harris County Sheriff’s Department. His condition was not available. Gunfire erupted at 11:30 a.m. at a home in the 1300 block of Spring City after two people forced open the front door, officials said. The homeowner and the suspects both were armed and exchanged gunfire, authorities said. One attacker, an adult, fell to the ground in the yard. He was later pronounced dead at the scene. The wounded juvenile ran to a nearby home in the 14000 block of Coveney and pounded on the front door. “He told me that he had gotten shot and to call his mother. I thought he was just crazy,” said Pamela Grant, who cares for an elderly woman who lives there. By that time, deputies had arrived. The youth was taken by ambulance to a hospital. His condition was not available."


A brief history of British gun control (or, how to disarm the law abiding populace by stealth): "In 1900 the British government trusted the people with firearms and to be their own guardians. Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the Marquess of Salisbury said he would ‘laud the day when there was a rifle in every cottage in England.’ However in 1903 Britain passed its first ever ‘gun control’ law, a minor one requiring a permit to carry a handgun and restricting the age of purchasers. It was the first toe over a slippery slope towards complete firearms prohibition. In 1919 the British government, in fear of communist insurgents and domestic and foreign anarchists, passed its first sweeping anti-gun laws (under the smokescreen of crime control) even though gun related crime was almost non existent in the England of the day. British subjects could now only buy a firearm if they could show ‘a good reason’ for having one and the firearm certificate system that we have today (implemented and abused by police) was introduced.”