An 80-year-old Korean War veteran, his wife and great-grandson were asleep when a convicted felon with a 13-page rap sheet allegedly smashed a basement window and entered their home. Hearing the commotion, the veteran got his handgun. Police said the suspect drew a gun and fired two shots. The veteran fired a single round, killing him. Here's where it got even more interesting: The veteran is a resident of Chicago, which has a decades-old handgun ban whose fate was at press time about to be ruled upon by the U.S. Supreme Court. Police declined to press charges against the veteran even though he may have violated the ban. One has to wonder, would anti-gun zealots favor prosecuting this war veteran for breaking one of their so-called "common sense" laws even though his actions saved innocent lives? "How are we going to protect our homes without guns?" said the vet's son. "That gun law should be abolished." (Chicago Tribune, Chicago, IL, OS/27/10)

In February an NRA-supported federal law went into effect permitting people who may legally carry firearms to do so in many previously gun-free national parks. Three months later, a backpacker chose to exercise the new right while hiking in Alaska's Denali National Park. His decision and the new law likely saved his life and that of the female hiker accompanying him. They discovered bear sign and went on high alert. The bear, a grizzly, quickly emerged and charged the female hiker. The male drew a AS ACP pistol and fired about nine shots, killing the bear. (Daily News-Miner, Fairbanks, AK, 05/30/10)

Police say four known gang members burst into an Arizona store that sells car alarms and stereos and announced a robbery. The gang members began ransacking the store and forced an employee into a back office at gunpoint. That's when the store's owner emerged onto the scene and opened fire with a shotgun. One gang member was killed and two were wounded. The store owner, whose forearm was slightly injured by return fire, held the three surviving suspects for police. (Associated Press, 05/12/10)

Home alone with her baby one morning, a woman heard a knock at the door. She declined to answer. A second knock, this time a~ the back door, aroused her suspicion. She retrieved a shotgun and attempted to obtain the license plate number of the car outside her home. To her shock, one of the suspects was able to pick the lock on the front door's dead bolt and it began to turn. She aimed the shotgun at the door. Police said the suspect opened the door, saw the shotgun and fled the area with an accomplice while shouting that they were merely lost. The men were arrested. (Chillicothe Gazette, Chillicothe, OH, 05/15/10)

Strolling along on his evening walk, a man with a concealed carry permit was approached from behind by a robber who thrust a gun in his back and demanded money. He handed over his wallet, and as the robber was distracted, he drew a AO-cal. semi-automatic pistol from its holster. The suspect pointed his gun at him, so the man opened fire, killing the suspect. Police said the suspect may have fired a shot during a robbery the previous week and may have been prepared to shoot again. "When we found [the dead suspect]. he was laying on the ground with the gun in his hands and his finger on the trigger," said Hazelwood Police Chief Carl Wolf. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, MO, 05/06/10)

Claiming to need money for a bus ticket, a man went begging door-to-door. Several houses into his apparent scheme, he was turned away by Charles and Rita Ray. The suspect allegedly grew agitated and tried to enter the home. "We believe he couldn't get in the front of the house and went around to the back and that's when the gunshots started," said Moss Point, Miss., Police Chief Sheila Smallman. The victims and the suspect both fired shots. The Rays were injured, but will recover. The suspect was killed. (Sun Herald, Gulfport, MS, OS/23/10)

With her husband working the night shift, a woman was home alone one evening when she heard noises upstairs. Fearing the worst, she got her handgun before investigating. A second floor window was shattered and a man was waving a flashlight around in the bedroom. "He yelled something at her," said Calhoun County, Ala., Sheriff Larry Amerson. "She wasn't sure what it meant and she was scared. "The woman shot the intruder several times, killing him. (The Anniston Star, Anniston, AL, 05/19/10)

Chicagoans' Right To Self-Defense Is No Laughing Matter

If there were ever a clear look into the character of Chicago's political boss, Mayor Richard J. Daley, it came during a bizarre press conference when a reporter asked an obvious question: "Given the numbers of shootings in the city, isn't the handgun ban ineffective?"

Daley moved to a prop table covered with a variety of confiscated guns. Instead of picking up a handgun, Daley hefted a rifle-an SKS with bayonet extended. Red-faced, he glared at the reporter and threatened:

"If I put this up your butt ... you'll find out how effective this is! If I put a round up your ... ."

Many headlines treated the mayor's threat as a joke. But, what if the reporter, Mike Dumke of www.Chicagoreader.com. had threatened the mayor in the same manner? For certain, the phalanx of heavily armed police bodyguards who accompany the mayor would have reacted.

As Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass observed, Daley "meant what he said. And so the mayor reveals his nature."

"Daley has been a bully his entire life, a child of muscle and privilege .... The police despise him. Their department is terribly understaffed and overworked. Taxpayers want more cops. But there's no money for additional police because Daley wasted it all, hundreds of millions of dollars year after year after year on deals for his cronies."

Kass began his column with this:

"In anti-handgun Chicago, criminals aren't bothered by Mayor Richard Daley's handgun ban."

As for the threatened reporter, Dumke said Daley's tantrum provided "no better illustration of his intolerance for debate, dissent and transparency.

" ... there's a critical discussion that needs to take place around here about gun control, violence, an understaffed police force, neglected neighborhoods, chronic joblessness, the war on drugs, failing schools and the priorities of public officials.

"But Mayor Daley has shown no sign of being interested in talking about it."

Dumke forgot one other element critical to the pandemic of Chicago's street violence-the endemic popular thug culture where life means nothing.

No greater illustration can be found than in the murder just days earlier of an off-duty policeman-30-year-old Thomas Wortham IV-in front of his parents' home by four gang-bangers who police say were out to prove their manhood by stealing the officer's new motorcycle.

One of those charged with the murder had a Facebook page where he described his hobbies as "basketball, dice and robbin" and bragged, "I have no problem wit pulling da trigger [sic]."

Wortham had just returned from his second tour in Iraq as a National Guard officer. After being shot, he was run over and dragged under the thugs' getaway car.

About the same time, an 80-year-old homeowner shot and killed an armed career criminal who invaded his home and shot first. (See this month's "Armed Citizen" for details.) The elderly citizen, a Korean War veteran, obtained his handgun to protect his family following an armed robbery by three thugs earlier in the year. Police confiscated his gun.

Public reaction was swift and fully supportive of the veteran. The ABC affiliate interviewed neighbors who said they would do the same. It was their right.

Even more remarkable was a local CBS segment on the aftermath of officer Wortham's murder. Try this for a headline: "Cop's Murder Has Some Thinking, Of Carrying A Gun ... Some Gun Control Supporters Now Thinking Of Breaking City's Handgun Ban."

There's more. Wortham's father, a retired police officer who is allowed under the Chicago ban to keep a handgun in the home, shot and killed one assailant in his son's murder and wounded another.

Mayor Daley's reaction to any successful armed defense? "... guns is [sic] not the answer to the problems that we see in a home, in the streets of America. It's as simple as that."

In preparation for the Supreme Court decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago challenging the city's gun ban, Daley has been dreaming up all manner of new schemes to block lawful handgun ownership. How about punitive liability insurance for gun owners that would lock out many poor and elderly citizens by cost alone?

We suggest demanding enforcement of federal laws against armed, violent criminals.

The Facebook braggart charged with murdering officer Wortham, according to press reports, was on probation for conviction on weapons charges.

And the criminal stopped cold by the 80-year-old vet was "a parolee with a record of drug and gun arrests."

Applying federal law would've taken these thugs off the streets. Instead Daley takes guns from homeowners who protect themselves and their families. That's insane.

Violent crime will continue to metastasize in Chicago until citizens there share the same rights promised by the Founding Fathers-the means to exercise their God-given right to armed self-defense. And whether through legal action as in the McDonald case or on the legislative front, NRA will remain in the forefront aggressively fighting to make sure all peaceable Americans share in that life-saving right.