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Re: GUN CONTROL*NO LBC CONTENT* DELETE NOW IF NOT INTERESTED

To: "Robert B. Houston" <transerv@sprynet.com>, <spridgets@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: GUN CONTROL*NO LBC CONTENT* DELETE NOW IF NOT INTERESTED
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 08:54:54 -0700charset="iso-8859-1"
References: <003401bfec1a$cb257e00$6ecd8ad1@robert>
If our Government was really trying to save lives, lock up the household
cleaners. Far more kids die from poison than shootings.

 If  this happened  to me my guns would not be part of the picture because
they are in another room locked in a case with trigger locks. I'm more
worried that someone would break in when I'm not home and use my weapons for
wrong.

Saving Lives is my business
Paul Van Wig
Ocean Lifeguard Specialist
Baywatch Redondo
Los Angeles County Fire Department

----- Original Message -----
From "Robert B. Houston" <transerv at sprynet.com>
To: <spridgets@autox.team.net>

Subject: GUN CONTROL*NO LBC CONTENT* DELETE NOW IF NOT INTERESTED


> Let me apologize in advance for wasting your bandwidth if this subject
does
> not interest you.  Please delete now so you are not offended.
>
> I do feel strongly about the subject of gun control, and this is something
I
> have not come to lightly.  I still think no one needs to own a functional
> machine gun, and teflon bullets, but I also very strongly believe that
there
> are people in America that will continue to whittle away my rights to
> freedom as an American in the name of "crime prevention" until the only
ones
> with rights are those that take them by force...eg. the criminals.
>
> Regards,
>
> Robert Houston
>
>
> 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 a
> weapon--
>  it 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 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. Kinda like cars.
>
>   Sound familiar?
>
>
>




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