IT IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK!

[bogey1]

You're sound asleep when you hear a thump 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. I
> n 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 c all
> 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 wa it 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 Emneth, 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 t o 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 Dunblane, Scotland, Thomas
> Hamilton used a semi-automatic weap on 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 Dunblane 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 Dunblane 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 k now who had handguns? The
> guns had been registered and licensed. Kinda 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

[JeannieBmine]

If that happened to me, I guess I would be dead as all I have next to MY bed is a baseball bat. This story really makes you think. What a great country we DO have and the freedoms we DO enjoy compared to England.

[Shawn.L]

Its a crime against humanity, and human rights what happend to him.

He served 3 years, The article makes it sound like he did life. One day is too many, he should get a medal not jail time.

I wonder if it would have gone differently if he had a crossbow?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Martin_(farmer)

[ungawa]

If that happened to me, I guess I would be dead as all I have next to MY bed is a baseball bat. This story really makes you think. What a great country we DO have and the freedoms we DO enjoy compared to England.

That's what they used to say in England.

[sengie]

If that happened to me, I guess I would be dead as all I have next to MY bed is a baseball bat. This story really makes you think. What a great country we DO have and the freedoms we DO enjoy compared to England.

How come thats all you have next to your bed? Tell bill to get you a handgun lol

[cgbudde]

If that happened to me, I guess I would be dead as all I have next to MY bed is a baseball bat. This story really makes you think. What a great country we DO have and the freedoms we DO enjoy compared to England.

And how long before LaBamba and his crew pull the same in this country.

[sureshot43]

Thanks for the History lesson Bogey! I hope more people read and learn. If Obama,Hillary,and all the others had to live in the real world with all of Us,They might be able to use their heads and do some real good for this country. We don't have armed security details to protect our families. WE have to do it ourselves.
BTW, if it meant protecting our loved ones,I think everyone of us on this forum would rather do a prison sentence,rather than attend a child or wifes funeral.