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http://www.sierratimes.com/rwaters.htm

An Internet Publication for Real Americans Friday, June 23, 2000 |
6:04 AM

Where We’re Headed
By Robert A. Waters

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 a weapon–it
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 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 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?

———————————————————————-
——
Robert is the author of:

“The Best Defense:
True Stories of Intended Victims Who Defended Themselves with a
Firearm”