e-mail from an Uncle,

SUBJECT: Have a shotgun?
>

> 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

>

> JUST REMEMBER – THE REASON THE JAPANESE DIDN’T INVADE THE USA IS

> BECAUSE THEY KNEW THAT MOST

> OF THE CITIZENS WERE ARMED.