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 home and are moving your way. With your heart pounding, 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 see two shadows. One appears to be holding a crowbar. When the intruder raises it as if to strike, you fire the shotgun. The blast knocks both thugs to the floor. One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and makes his way outside.

As you pickup the phone to call police, you know you're in trouble. In your country, most guns were outlawed years ago, 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 one 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 10 to 12 years," he replies, as if that's nothing. "Behave yourself and you'll be out in 7."

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 choir boys. 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 has 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.

In 1999, this case really happened to Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk, England. In 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. All "common sense" approaches, of course.

Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerford mass shooting in 1987. Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed man armed with an AK-47, walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw. When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead. The British public, already desensitized by 80 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 damaged 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 folks obeyed the law. The few who didn't were visited by police and threatened with 10-year prison sentences, if they didn't comply. Officials later bragged that they had taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens. How did the authorities know who had handguns? The guns had been registered and licensed, of course. Sound familiar?

Wake up, America! This is why our Founding Fathers put the Second Amendment in our Constitution.

 

Did you take that off my Facebook page? I have that posted up there too.

Scary story indeed!

 

The moral of the story ? Shoot both of them dead and call the mexican stewmaster to dissolve the evidence. It's not like the burglars/robber's shared with anyone where they were going that night....Cheers !

 

Sad days indeed...it's also tragic that my firearms suffered a horrible boating accident

 

Nice telling these stories, but what can we do about it now to prevent this from happening? Donate more money to NRA?

 

Try living in NY or CA, half of this is already true. I have been waiting almost 9 months for my handgun permit. They put so many restrictions on what guns you can own legally (especially in the case of any M4 styled rifle) it almost entirely defeats the purpose of owning one.

 

Vote Republican.

Yes, I know there are pro gun blue dog Democrats. But as it stands right now, Democrats want more gun control, and the Republicans do not.

Until that changes, vote Republican.

And donate $$$ to the NRA.

 

CA has castle doctrine.

NJ does not.

Does NY have castle doctrine?

 

Here's the link

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Norfolk | Tony Martin: Crime and controversy