You're
sound asleep when you hear
athump
outside your bedroom door.
Half-awake,
and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers.
At
least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way.
With
your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your
shotgun. You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the
door and open it. In the darkness, you make out two shadows. One
holds something that looks like a crowbar.
When
the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and
fire.
The
blast knocks both thugs to the floor. One writhes and screams
while the second man crawls to the front door And lurches outside.
As
you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you're in trouble.
In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the few
that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them
useless...
Yours
was never registered.
Police
arrive and inform you that
the second burglar has died. They arrest you for First Degree Murder
and Illegal Possession of a Firearm.
When
you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities
will probably plea the case down to manslaughter.
"What
kind of sentence will I get?" you ask.
"Only
ten-to-twelve years,"
he
replies, as if that's nothing.
"Behave
yourself, and you'll be out in seven."
The
next day, the shooting is the lead
story
in the local newspaper. Somehow, you're portrayed as an eccentric
vigilante while the two men you shot are represented as choirboys.
Their friends and relatives can't find an unkind word to say about
them...
Buried
deep down in the article, authorities acknowledge that both "victims"
have been arrested numerous times. But the next day's headline says
it all:
"Lovable
Rogue Son Didn't Deserve to Die."
The
thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin
Hood-type pranksters...As the days wear on, the story takes wings.
The national media picks it up, then the international media. The
surviving burglar has become a folk hero. Your attorney says the
thief is preparing
to
sue you and he'll probably win. The media publishes reports that
your home has been burglarized several times in the past and that
you've been critical of local police for their lack of effort in
apprehending the suspects.
After
the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared
next time. The District Attorney uses this to allege that you were
lying in wait for the burglars.
A
few months later, you go to trial. The charges haven't been reduced,
as your lawyer had so confidently predicted.
When
you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works
against you...Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful
man. It doesn’t take long for the jury to convict you of all
charges. The judge sentences you to life in prison.
This
case really happened!
On
August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Enmesh, Norfolk, England, killed one
burglar and wounded a second. In April, 2000, he was convicted
and is now serving a life term...
How
did it become a crime to defend one's own life in the once great
British Empire?
It
started with the Pistols Act of 1903.
This
seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons
and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who
had a license... The Firearms Act of 1920 expanded licensing to
include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns. Later
laws passed in 1953 and 1967 outlawed the carrying of any weapon by
private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns.
Momentum
for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerford
mass shooting in 1987. Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed man with a
Kalashnikov rifle, walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw.
When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead. The British public,
already de-sensitized by eighty years of "gun control",
demanded even tougher restrictions.
(The
seizure of all privately owned handguns was the objective even though
Ryan used a rifle.)
Nine
years later, at Dubliner, Scotland, and Thomas Hamilton used a
semi-automatic weapon to murder 16 children and a teacher at a public
school.
For
many years, the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally
unstable or worse, criminals. Now the press had a real kook with
which to beat up law-abiding gun owners. Day after day, week after
week, the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a
total ban on all handguns. The Dubliner Inquiry, a few months
later, sealed the fate of the few sidearms still owned by private
citizens.
During
the years in which the British government incrementally took away
most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to armed
self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism. Authorities refused to
grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming
that self-defense was no longer considered a reason to own a gun.
Citizens
who shot burglars or robbers or rapists were charged while the real
criminals were released. Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police
spokesman was quoted as saying, “We cannot have people take the law
into their own hands."
All
of Martin’s neighbors had been robbed numerous times, and several
elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who
had no fear of the consequences. Martin himself, a collector of
antiques, had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by
burglars.
When
the Dubliner Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given
three months to turn them over to local authorities. Being good
British subjects, most people obeyed the law. The few who didn't
were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences
if they didn't comply. Police later bragged that they'd taken nearly
200,000 handguns from private citizens.
How
did the authorities know who had handguns?
The
guns had been registered and licensed.
Kind
of like cars. Sound familiar?
WAKE
UP AMERICA; THIS IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PUT THE SECOND AMENDMENT
IN OUR CONSTITUTION.
"...It
does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless
minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds...”
--Samuel
Adams
As long as I can remember I have had a "thing" for guns. Most boys do. As a matter of fact I remember one Christmas (I was 7 or so) my parents gave me a (I am about to really date myself) "Man from U.N.C.L.E. spy kit! It included a gun, concealable holster, ID case and some papers signing me up as an honorary agent. I was the Man - no pun intended. My dad told me that by signing the papers I would have to go to England to train with other agents and get shot at. He said I would be gone for several months, maybe a year. I of course took it like a man and cried! He said he wouldn't sign the papers and I could stay home, HOWEVER being the good father he was he tortured me with signing the papers every time I did something wrong. Ironically I am a 21 year veteran of Law Enforcement - go figure.
