Just a thought...

daveman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2010
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On the way to the Dark Tower.
Found this on Facebook:



JUST A THOUGHT...

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
 
I'm a gun owner, a second amendment rights advocate, and I don't believe in any type of small arm weapons controls.

However...cops most everywhere know that 94% of Americans lack the balls to shoot an armed intruder. Most of the time they hide or flee.

It's a losing argument for our side of the gun control argument to use the concept that a armed citizens make all of us more safe. They're just not that brave on the average
 
Do you live in Great Britian?
Do you have any idea of the number of accidental deaths and suicides here in the USA by gun? And we put up with massacres of young kids. All so you can entertain your fantasy of shooting the robber who is breaking in to your house.

Or is it the fantasy of repealing the invasion of the body snatchers a.k.a. jack booted government thugs coming to take your guns and liberty.

How many invasions you repealed?

How many times has a breakin occured at your house?

How come your fantasies/fears are more important than other peoples realities?
 
The OP is an ancient email from about ten years ago.

Tony Martin was not sentenced to life.

Mr Martin's conviction for murder, in April 2000, caused a national outcry. It was reduced to manslaughter and the sentence cut to five years on appeal.

His release was delayed until the summer of 2003 because he refused to express any remorse over the death of Mr Barras.


'I don't regret shooting dead teenage burglar', says remorseless farmer Tony Martin | Mail Online


He served 3 years.

As for the burglars, one died. But the others involved served time:

January 10, 2000 - Mr Fearon and Darren Bark, 33, both from Newark, Nottinghamshire, admit to conspiring to burgle Bleak House. Mr Fearon is jailed for 3 years and Mr Bark is sentenced to 30 months.

Mr. Martin made out all right:

July 28, 2003 - Mr Martin is released from custody. He sells his story to the Daily Mirror for £100,000.
 
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Do you live in Great Britian?
Do you have any idea of the number of accidental deaths and suicides here in the USA by gun? And we put up with massacres of young kids. All so you can entertain your fantasy of shooting the robber who is breaking in to your house.

Or is it the fantasy of repealing the invasion of the body snatchers a.k.a. jack booted government thugs coming to take your guns and liberty.

How many invasions you repealed?

How many times has a breakin occured at your house?

How come your fantasies/fears are more important than other peoples realities?

How does one "repeal" an invasion?
 
The OP is an ancient email from about ten years ago.

Tony Martin was not sentenced to life.

Mr Martin's conviction for murder, in April 2000, caused a national outcry. It was reduced to manslaughter and the sentence cut to five years on appeal.

His release was delayed until the summer of 2003 because he refused to express any remorse over the death of Mr Barras.


'I don't regret shooting dead teenage burglar', says remorseless farmer Tony Martin | Mail Online


He served 3 years.

As for the burglars, one died. But the others involved served time:

January 10, 2000 - Mr Fearon and Darren Bark, 33, both from Newark, Nottinghamshire, admit to conspiring to burgle Bleak House. Mr Fearon is jailed for 3 years and Mr Bark is sentenced to 30 months.

Mr. Martin made out all right:

July 28, 2003 - Mr Martin is released from custody. He sells his story to the Daily Mirror for £100,000.

Hell no he didn't, He was minding his own business when these two thugs changed his whole life. I suppose he should have just stood there and let them kill or maim him? huh? He should not have served a day.
 
I'm a gun owner, a second amendment rights advocate, and I don't believe in any type of small arm weapons controls.

However...cops most everywhere know that 94% of Americans lack the balls to shoot an armed intruder. Most of the time they hide or flee.

It's a losing argument for our side of the gun control argument to use the concept that a armed citizens make all of us more safe. They're just not that brave on the average


Why that's a pretty realistic assesment. Cops will even tell you how damn hard it is to hit a man that is or could be shooting at you. Adrenaline pumping, pulse at 180, scared, dark. Not the best of shooting sceniaros.

But the gun nuts all think that your regular citizen, just like a typical third grade teacher, all have the temperment of John Wayne.

If they only had a gun seems to be the mantra. If just everybody had a gun, the world would be a safer place. Convoluted thinking.
 
The OP is an ancient email from about ten years ago.

Tony Martin was not sentenced to life.

Mr Martin's conviction for murder, in April 2000, caused a national outcry. It was reduced to manslaughter and the sentence cut to five years on appeal.

His release was delayed until the summer of 2003 because he refused to express any remorse over the death of Mr Barras.


'I don't regret shooting dead teenage burglar', says remorseless farmer Tony Martin | Mail Online


He served 3 years.

As for the burglars, one died. But the others involved served time:

January 10, 2000 - Mr Fearon and Darren Bark, 33, both from Newark, Nottinghamshire, admit to conspiring to burgle Bleak House. Mr Fearon is jailed for 3 years and Mr Bark is sentenced to 30 months.

Mr. Martin made out all right:

July 28, 2003 - Mr Martin is released from custody. He sells his story to the Daily Mirror for £100,000.

He shot them while they were trying to flee. The dead kid was shot in the back.
 
Do you live in Great Britian?

No, I live in the United States of America, a country where I have certain rights, not the least of which is the right to bear arms...

Do you have any idea of the number of accidental deaths and suicides here in the USA by gun?

Yes, I do...

And we put up with massacres of young kids.

No, we don't. They happen. Tragically.

All so you can entertain your fantasy of shooting the robber who is breaking in to your house.

I have no fantasy which involves shooting anyone.

Or is it the fantasy of repealing the invasion of the body snatchers a.k.a. jack booted government thugs coming to take your guns and liberty.

How many invasions you repealed?

"Repealed?" I suppose you meant "repelled..."

Zero. Don't have to, because I own a gun...

Face it, as unlikely a scenario as it may be, isn't it better to have the means to resist rather than freely submit?

How many times has a breakin occured at your house?

Never. Doesn't mean it won't happen...

How come your fantasies/fears are more important than other peoples realities?

Why are yours?
 
From wikipedia:

In 1999, Martin, a bachelor, was living alone at his farmhouse in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, nicknamed Bleak House, which he inherited at age 35 from his uncle.[3] He claimed to have been burgled a total of ten times, losing £6,000 worth of furniture. Police sources say they are not sure that all the incidents took place.[4] Martin also complained about police inaction over the burglaries and claimed that multiple items and furniture were stolen such as dinnerware and a grandfather clock.[5] Martin had equipped himself with an illegally-held pump-action Winchester Model 1300 12 bore[6] shotgun which he claimed to have found.[7] Martin had his shotgun certificate revoked in 1994 after he found a man scrumping for apples in his orchard and shot a hole in the back of his vehicle.[4] Pump-action shotguns with a magazine capacity above 2 are illegal to hold on a Shotgun Certificate however, and can only be held with a Firearms Certificate.[8]

On the night of 20 August 1999, two burglars – Brendon Fearon, 29, and Fred Barras, 16 – broke into Martin's house.[9] Shooting downwards in the dark, with his shotgun, loaded with birdshot, Martin evidentially shot three times towards the intruders (once when they were in the stairwell and twice more when they were trying to flee through the window of an adjacent ground floor room). Barras was hit - fatally - in the back and both sustained gunshot injuries to their legs. Both escaped through the window but Barras died at the scene.[2] Martin claimed that he opened fire after being woken when the intruders smashed a window. But his claim that he had shot at them from halfway down the stairs was apparently disproved by scientific evidence that showed he must have fired his shotgun from the doorway of a downstairs room. The prosecution accused him of lying in wait for the burglars and opening fire without warning from close range, in retribution for previous break-ins at his home.[10]

OP negged.
 
I'm a gun owner, a second amendment rights advocate, and I don't believe in any type of small arm weapons controls.

However...cops most everywhere know that 94% of Americans lack the balls to shoot an armed intruder. Most of the time they hide or flee.

It's a losing argument for our side of the gun control argument to use the concept that a armed citizens make all of us more safe. They're just not that brave on the average


Why that's a pretty realistic assesment. Cops will even tell you how damn hard it is to hit a man that is or could be shooting at you. Adrenaline pumping, pulse at 180, scared, dark. Not the best of shooting sceniaros.

But the gun nuts all think that your regular citizen, just like a typical third grade teacher, all have the temperment of John Wayne.

If they only had a gun seems to be the mantra. If just everybody had a gun, the world would be a safer place. Convoluted thinking.
One time when I was a teenager, I was shot in the forearm at the California state Fair, it was a ricochet of a 22 round that bounced off a steel street lamp post.

At any rate...I had all kinds of brave friends with me at the time who all thought it would be cool to shoot someone who broke into their house. But when all of us heard the shot hat hit me, every single person I could see, in all directions, were running like Antelopes chased by Lions, including me.

Smart people run.

You really find out what people are made of when the chips are down, and it's usually the quiet ones (and I don't mean whimps) who step up, and the tough guys crumble just like he rest.
 
I'm a gun owner, a second amendment rights advocate, and I don't believe in any type of small arm weapons controls.

However...cops most everywhere know that 94% of Americans lack the balls to shoot an armed intruder. Most of the time they hide or flee.

It's a losing argument for our side of the gun control argument to use the concept that a armed citizens make all of us more safe. They're just not that brave on the average


Why that's a pretty realistic assesment. Cops will even tell you how damn hard it is to hit a man that is or could be shooting at you. Adrenaline pumping, pulse at 180, scared, dark. Not the best of shooting sceniaros.

But the gun nuts all think that your regular citizen, just like a typical third grade teacher, all have the temperment of John Wayne.

If they only had a gun seems to be the mantra. If just everybody had a gun, the world would be a safer place. Convoluted thinking.
One time when I was a teenager, I was shot in the forearm at the California state Fair, it was a ricochet of a 22 round that bounced off a steel street lamp post.

At any rate...I had all kinds of brave friends with me at the time who all thought it would be cool to shoot someone who broke into their house. But when all of us heard the shot hat hit me, every single person I could see, in all directions, were running like Antelopes chased by Lions, including me.

Smart people run.

You really find out what people are made of when the chips are down, and it's usually the quiet ones (and I don't mean whimps) who step up, and the tough guys crumble just like he rest.

What? Are you saying that the ones who do the most talking about how they are going to shoot the enemy are the ones who are most likely to turn tail and run?
 
The burglars were fleeing when Mr. Martin shot them.

Barras was shot in the back and died at the scene, while Fearon was shot in the leg and recovered after treatment in hospital.

But it emerged the pair had been shot as they tried to flee through a window.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Norfolk | Tony Martin: Crime and controversy

That's why he was convicted of manslaughter.

The teen was in the wrong, yet in the name of Gun Control, he was the victim??

It would be so nice to live in the fantasy world of the left, yet we don't, so they are in denial and the folks who adhere to the rules are to blame...

So in essence, you are sane if you're a Conservative and insane if you're a Liberal...

Glad we could straighten that out for you...
 

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