Don't let this happen to us......

[6wapiti6]

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 choir boys. Their friends and
> relative! s 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 i! n the past and that you've been cr itical
> 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-a
> biding 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-def!
> ense was no longer considered a re ason 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 bu rglars.
> 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.

[WildHawg]

Pretty damn spooky, isn't it. Time changes peoples attitudes. As a monarchy, and a small island with very little public land, they don't have the history we in America do of hunting, nor a constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms.
Let's hope these factors work in our favor.

[maggot]

supprt NRA one of the very few advocates on the subject.

[Ifishsum]

Agree with what Maggot said. You'd think talking to your fellow hunters about the NRA is like preaching to the choir, but I've always been surprised at how many gun owners I know who do not belong to nor support the NRA. I've even bought a couple of them 1 year gift memberships, hoping that they'll continue what I started. We have precious few organizations willing to lobby for our cause and we need to support them all we can.

[id. painter]

This always scares the poo out of me . I feel that we are absolutly heading the same direction. there are more people who feel that guns are nothing but bad than folks who own one ... anymore. id. p.

[Martin85]

After sitting on a grand jury last Dec. for a month in Portland doing the crimes against people section I've lost all my confort on thinking that if an intruder come into your home you can take the means to eliminate the threat with real force before knowing they have a weapon and if they are violent towards you or your loved ones. It seemed during some cases of violence that if the person wanted to just flee and you slowed them down and a real fight for life occured then the outcome could be considered your fault.
It seemed like common sense was not the important part or the protection of your family and loved ones. But escalation of an unwanted event in your home can turn bad for the home owner. Even worse I would say dont get involved in any event outside, Like a car break in the law wants you to let it happen rather than get in a conflict?? I dont get it and was very frustrated in some ways but I still know I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.