MO: Robber with record shot: "Kansas City police today identified a man killed in a botched robbery attempt Friday at a convenience store as William Rees, 33. Police did not have an address for Rees, but online court records listed an address from Ozark, Mo. Rees was paroled from a Missouri prison on Aug. 16 after serving sentences for stealing, drug trafficking and second-degree assault. Investigators said Rees entered the store about 3 p.m. Friday, announced a robbery and indicated he had a gun, according to clerks at the store at 5712 Independence Ave. As Rees reached over the counter for the money, a clerk shot him, police said. The store’s video surveillance system recorded the incident, police said. Police did not find a gun with Rees."


TX: Mad guy gets himself shot: "A 39-year- old Smith County man is dead allegedly at the hands of his step-father. Investigators say it was self defense. It happened Sunday afternoon at 15578 Dry Creek Road in Smith County. Lt. Dana said the dispute began when Audy Murphy started verbally and physically abusing his mother. "The step father told Audy you need to get off your mother or I'm gonna shoot. At that point Audy stood up and started toward his step father in a very aggressive manner telling him to go ahead and shoot me." In what police describe as an act of self defense, Mr. Kirton fired a fatal blow to Audy's chest with a 9mm handgun. "We believe the stepfather was protecting himself. We believe he was trying to protect his wife," Lt. Dana said. Audy suffered from schizophrenia, Lt. Dana said. According to jail records, Audy has been arrested several times on charges from assault to theft. No arrests have been made in the case."


FL: Man finally acquitted under "stand your ground": "Nour Badi Jarkas, 54, of Plantation, was facing trial for the January 2009 shooting death of his estranged wife's boyfriend, John Concannon. But Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes ordered an acquittal after finding that Jarkas was an invited guest in his wife's home and felt threatened during a confrontation with the victim. Jarkas had already been tried on the murder charge and related accusations early last year. The jury found him not guilty of armed kidnapping and aggravated assault with a firearm, but could not reach a unanimous verdict on the murder count. Months after the jurors deadlocked, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the Stand Your Ground law, passed in 2005, is intended to keep certain self-defense cases from ever getting to a jury.... In Jarkas' case, "nothing was presented … to rebut the reasonableness of the fear that [Jarkas] testified that he had in being confronted by a 5-foot-11, 280-pound, tattooed man who was angry and who lunged at him"


Only the connected have gun rights in California: "California’s gun laws are considered by some people to be unconstitutional restrictions on self-protection. Its concealed weapons permit law gives government officials power to capriciously mete out civil liberties — and they are. According to the San Jose Mercury News, only 113 of the 1,781,642 residents of Santa Clara County have concealed weapons permits — and 64 of them are government officials: judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers. Their names are not divulged. The 49 civilians were listed by the newspaper. Ordinarily, I would extend privacy to them. That is why you get a concealed weapons permit. But the local newspaper published it and the list of names shows that you have to be connected to get one."