While you were sleeping While he was sleeping... You're sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door. Half-awake, and nearl

[rico1]

While he was sleeping...

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.

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

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/norfolk/3009769.stm

[The Machine]

I can confirm that this is a true story ..... and it makes me feel sick how that man was abused by the system which should have been there to protect him not the criminals.

I know I would have done the same thing he did

[dog53]

Yeah I read this story before. It sucks. But the brit`s let things get that far and when they take your guns and the country is gun free. Hey your now breaking the law by having one. To actually use it and take a thugs life even though he deserved it. Yep your looking at a life sentence. To all you brit`s I would suggest in investing in a really good razor sharp samurai sword to keep by the bed stand. That way you can cut off the piece of cow dungs head and no one can say a word about it.

[rico1]

Yeah I read this story before. It sucks. But the brit`s let things get that far and when they take your guns and the country is gun free. Hey your now breaking the law by having one. To actually use it and take a thugs life even though he deserved it. Yep your looking at a life sentence. To all you brit`s I would suggest in investing in a really good razor sharp samurai sword to keep by the bed stand. That way you can cut off the piece of cow dungs head and no one can say a word about it.

While that might be the solution if you are in the UK, I don't want the bad guy to get that close to me.

[Frogee]

I can confirm that this is a true story ..... and it makes me feel sick how that man was abused by the system which should have been there to protect him not the criminals.

I know I would have done the same thing he did

It is a true story alright, I just Googled it and there are lots of articles on the case. I copied this out of an article by the BBC. Check out the last line.......have they lost their freakin minds

Martin has also continued to make front pages as he has wrestled

with the parole board for early release from prison.

Martin did not trust the police and slept with his clothes on

He is due for automatic release on 28 July, when he will have served

two-thirds of his sentence, but this could have been brought forward to

as early as September last year.

The parole board, however, has continually refused him early release -

saying he has shown no remorse and

would continue to pose a danger to any other burglars

[dog53]

While that might be the solution if you are in the UK, I don't want the bad guy to get that close to me.

If you are living in a gun free zone you don't really have a choice. You can do like this guy did and pay the price or learn the art of close quarter fighting.. With the right training techniques you would be very surprised as to how easy it is to take a man out with a knife.

[Shabibilicious]

This is a pretty awful story. I wonder if that little revolutionary thingy 230 years ago, has anything to do with their gun laws......getting one's arse handed them by armed citizens might have left a bad taste in their mouths. As always, just my opinion.

GO RV, then BV

[jonjon]

This is a pretty awful story. I wonder if that little revolutionary thingy 230 years ago, has anything to do with their gun laws......getting one's arse handed them by armed citizens might have left a bad taste in their mouths. As always, just my opinion.

GO RV, then BV

Do you think the subjects should just perform as dictated by their masters?

[Shabibilicious]

Do you think the subjects should just perform as dictated by their masters?

That sounds like a question for the Queen......I'm not qualified.

GO RV, then BV