XPost: alt.california, alt.activism.children, alt.activism   
   XPost: alt.activism.student   
   From: obama@impeach.turd   
      
   In article    
   God's Debris wrote:   
   >   
   > 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   
   > Hungerfordmass 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   
   >   
   > If you think this is important, please forward to everyone you know.   
   >   
   > You had better wake up, because Obama is doing this very same thing,   
   > over here, if he can get it done.   
   >   
   > The UN Small Arms Treaty that Hilary is negotiating would take away   
   > our 2nd Amendment rights.   
   >   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)   
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