Did guns "walk" from Texas too?

Otilio Osorio was just 22 in October 2010 when he purchased a Romanian-made Draco AK-47 pistol in Joshua, just outside Fort Worth.

There was nothing remarkable about the sale until the gun, with its serial number obliterated, was identified as one of three weapons used to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata on a Mexico highway four months later.

Documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle show that at different points in 2010, two Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms divisions - Dallas and Phoenix - had evidence implicating Osorio well before drug gangsters gunned down Zapata and his partner Victor Avila, who survived.

But no one put it all together until agents in Dallas arrested Osorio in February, 13 days after Zapata's death and four months after Osorio purchased the deadly Draco.

Now the case of Osorio, as well as his ex-Marine brother Ranferi Osorio, and their next-door neighbor in the Dallas suburb of Lancaster, Kelvin Leon Morrison, is exhibit A in an effort by congressional Republicans to uncover a Texas version of the flawed tactics used in the Phoenix-based Operation Fast and Furious.

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Wobbly self-defense law in Vermont: "When Patricia Billings fired a handgun at an intruder reportedly breaking through her bedroom window in Rutland Town last week, the legal ramifications were probably the furthest thing from her mind. In Billings’ case, police say the 49-year-old fired three rounds from a handgun at a man trying to enter her home on Tuesday. The intruder fled the property on Quarterline Road leaving behind no evidence that any of the bullets found the mark. As police continue to search for the home invader, state police Lt. Charles Cacciatore said the Rutland County State’s Attorney’s office has indicated that no charges should be brought against Billings for her actions during the incident. Billings could not be reached for comment. But Cacciatore said it is possible that police may be called on to investigate the attempted use of deadly force if the intruder — once found and arrested — files a complaint."