Outspoken Wash. medical pot activist shoots robber: "A well-known Washington state medical marijuana activist traded gunfire with robbers who invaded his home early Monday, suffering minor shotgun pellet wounds and sending one intruder to the intensive care unit of a hospital. Activist Steve Sarich, 59, runs CannaCare, an organization that provides patients with marijuana plants and advice about Washington's law. "I don't want to shoot people, but God, this is our eighth home invasion since last May," he told The Associated Press. Sarich said he was awakened at his Kirkland home by the barking of his dogs, then grabbed a .22-caliber handgun and headed down a hallway outside his bedroom. A man with a shotgun confronted him in the living room and fired, he said. The main blast struck a wall a few inches from his head, Sarich said. One pellet struck his face while another hit his leg. Sarich shot at the robber but missed. When his gun jammed, he darted back to his bedroom and grabbed another handgun. He spotted another robber standing outside the glass door to his bedroom and fired three times, hitting the robber multiple times. Sarich's live-in girlfriend called 911, as did the wounded robber, a 19-year-old from Renton. King County sheriff's deputies found him in the backyard and took him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he underwent surgery for life-threatening wounds. Sheriff's deputies arrested a second suspect, also 19, as he tried to flag down a ride nearby a few hours later. That suspect gave investigators the names of two others involved in the robbery attempt who had fled in a vehicle.


Mich.: Customer swipes masked man's gun, kills him: "Romulus police are seeking three suspects after a party store customer wrestled a gun away from a masked man, shooting and killing him. Police say the robber and two other men were robbing the store at 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the city about 20 miles southwest of Detroit when the customer walked in with a woman. Romulus Police Sgt. Corey Sadler tells the Detroit Free Press that the customer successfully fought the gunman for control of the weapon and fired two rounds. No other injuries were reported. Police are seeking two men who escaped after trying to force a store employee to empty the safe at gunpoint.


Off-duty cop shoots robber at home: "Two men face multiple felony charges after one of them was wounded in a break-in at an off-duty Las Vegas police officer's home in Henderson, authorities said Monday. The wounded man, Carlos Chacon, 38, was hospitalized for a leg wound and booked into jail after the shooting Sunday in a middle-class residential neighborhood in the Green Valley area, Henderson police spokesman Keith Paul said. Chacon's wound was not believed to be life-threatening. Paul said Chacon was trying to elude police arriving to a report of an earlier home invasion break-in in the same neighborhood when he entered the officer's home and was shot. An alleged accomplice, Nelson Abreus-Diaz, 39, was arrested after the first break-in, Paul said."


Arkansans want to carry weapons in the open and stage protest hike over it: "Forty-three states now allow gun owners to openly carry firearms. However, Arkansas is not among them. But a group is stepping up efforts to try to change that. Stehle is one of the newest members of Arkansas Carry, a grassroots organization looking to change Arkansas gun laws. Currently on the agenda is to make Arkansas an open-carry state. "The biggest thing for me is: if I'm concealing it with my permit and I reach for a can of vegetables at Wal-Mart and it's exposed, technically, I've committed a crime," said Stehle. Steve Jones, the organization's vice chairman, believes "We have a handgun law that is archaic, old and it needs to be changed." Jones organized the 4.5 mile empty-holster protest hike. He says the group is working to get support for a bill rejected in Arkansas' Judicial Committee last year. "It's still alive. And the legislature has what they call an interim study sessions; and what we're going to try to do is get that before one of the study sessions," he said. "And try to get them to look at it and see what maybe needs to be fixed up on the bill to get it passed." According to Arkansas Carry, they are just trying to get the right that has been granted in 43 other states. "It's my right," group visitor, John Arellanes said. "I support what they are doing."