Closer to reality then you think

[Frenchy]

Closer to Reality than You Think

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. 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 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 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 Dunblane, Scotland , 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 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 know 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

[Lazylaser]

If/when this happens to the U.S. I will take my passport and leave.

[Carnes]

If/when this happens to the U.S. I will take my passport and leave.

There really isn't any where to go. I suspect it would be much more satisfying to fight the good fight and win back our freedom. It is not as bad now as in that story, but it is still really bad. Regular people like you and me are the only ones who can fix it. The first step is to send your legislators an email, then take it from there.

[pirateron]

Dude should be happy that it wasn't the police serving a "warrant" or they'd be screaming for the death penalty.

[lexington86]

The U.K. is really a sad and depressing place when it comes to personal freedoms. Sadly I believe we are currently inching our way to the same place.

[1861]

The U.K. is really a sad and depressing place when it comes to personal freedoms. Sadly I believe we are currently inching our way to the same place.

I think after Tuesday we will be heading that way in leaps & bounds.