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 wing.*
*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 person.*
* 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 desensitized 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.*
*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*
*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 wing.*
*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 person.*
* 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 desensitized 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.*
*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*