WA: Off-duty State Patrol trooper killed an intruder: "The Kitsap County Sheriff’s office is investigating an incident Saturday night where an off-duty Washing State Patrol trooper shot and killed a man he said was an intruder on his property. The trooper reportedly caught the man prowling on his property just before midnight Saturday after his dogs began to bark. The trooper says he identified himself as law enforcement officer and the 30-year old man then swung a steel rod and hit the trooper in the head knocking the trooper to the ground. The trooper was able to get back on his feet and issued verbal commands for the man to drop the steel bar but he reportedly refused so the trooper used lethal force in self-defense. The intruder, who received medic treatment at the scene, was later pronounced dead at Tacoma General Hospital".


MO: Charges dropped against former deputy: "Larry Uhlmeyer won’t face a third trial. Marion County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Redington dropped charges Monday against the 54-year-old former sheriff’s deputy. Uhlmeyer was charged with one count of felony first-degree assault and three counts of felony second-degree assault in the Sept. 30, 2007, shooting of James Rudd, who was 26 at the time. The incident took place during a confrontation in the garage of Uhlmeyer's home along Highway 6 near the 18-Wheeler truck stop at Taylor. Rudd’s injuries left him paralyzed from the neck down. Rudd had claimed in an earlier deposition that he had tried to walk away from the encounter with Uhlmeyer. Rudd had been sleeping in a car inside the Uhlmeyer garage after walking to the property from the truck stop, where he had been with friends. Uhlmeyer claimed Rudd came at him threateningly. He told investigators he fired the first shot inside the structure and at least two more rounds as Rudd was backing out of the building." [I am not at all sure that justice was done here]


British homeowner who fired shotgun to warn off trespassing trailer children will not face charges: "A carer who was arrested for firing a warning shot with his shotgun to scare off trespassing travellers' children has been told he will not face charges. Christopher Bayfield, 40, is understood to have reacted after a series of petty thefts at the home he shares with his parents following the arrival of travellers in a neighbouring field for a Christian festival. He is said to have shouted at the children and fired his shotgun vertically into the air after hearing noises in a copse outside the £1million five-bedroom house in Swavesey, Cambridgeshire. Mr Bayfield, who looks after his seriously ill father, retired businessman Leslie, 85, was later arrested by armed officers on suspicion of firearm offences and questioned at a police station."


You’ve come a long way, baby: "The invalidation of handgun bans throughout the country, accomplished in the space of two years, was sudden and surprising even to those who have spent decades laying the groundwork. Take Alan Gottlieb, founder and president of the Second Amendment Foundation, which began backing Gura’s various gun lawsuits after Heller. Since founding the SAF in 1974, Gottlieb has been hosting academic conferences, supporting legal scholars and historians, and filing carefully targeted lawsuits in defense of gun rights. Still, he says, ’six years ago if you had said [the gun rights community would] see two cases get to the Supreme Court and two victories, I would have said, ‘Not in my lifetime. Maybe in someone else’s.””