May 28, 2006

The following is a reprint of an editorial by NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre from the October 2002 issue of American Rifle Magazine. It is well worth reading.

As the horrible consequences of gun control play out today in Great Britain, it’s no wonder that America’s anti-gun politicians are trying to cover their tracks until after Election Day.

Whatever the scheme-of-the-moment touted by American politicians or the media or the anti-gun rights lobby as "sensible first steps," the ultimate rebuttal is in two words: Great Britain.

In that nation, formerly free people can tell you about the real nature of "gun control" – where all schemes, no matter how benign sounding, lead to the same ultimate end: forced disarmament of peaceable individuals by government. Be it in the form of gun-owner licensing and registration, or safety requirements, or gun storage, or mandatory training, each step in Britain was followed by another step, and another, until law-abiding gun owners were forced into a final step – forfeiting their personal property and, with it, their liberties.

Mass forfeitures of registered firearms began in England in 1988 following a murderous rampage by a deranged individual in Hungerford. The government banned whole classes of pump and semi-auto shotguns and rifles. Then, following another rampage in Dunblane, Scotland, by another madman, Britain criminalized possession of large caliber handguns, then all handguns in 1997. In Great Britain, licensed owners forfeited a total of 160,000 registered handguns to the government. When the last registered handgun held by a licensed owner was confiscated on February 27, 1998, the Home Security announced: "The government fulfilled its pledge to remove all handguns from the streets of Britain today."

Almost immediately, the level of armed violence and the brutal nature of that violence exploded against the disarmed civil population. Headlines from British newspapers tell the story: "Handgun Crime Soars Despite Dunblane Ban"…"Police Move to Tackle Huge Rise in Crime"… "London Gun Murders Tripled in 2001"…"Steep Rise in Violent Crime"… "Top Gangs Getting More Guns, Warn Police"… "Handgun Crime Up Despite Ban"… "Gun Crime Rise in London"… "Gun Crime Trebles as Weapons and Drugs Flood British Cities."

Today, the epidemic of crime and mindless violence is increasing at an alarming rate, as indicated by a new assessment of gun violence, which was released during the first days of 2002. Various news outlets covered the story from a different perspective, but their conclusions were the same – very bad news. Terrible news for ordinary and unarmed British subjects. The Daily Telegraph of January 3, 2002, reported, "Police fear a new crime explosion as school-age muggers graduate to guns… the number of people robbed or personal property at gunpoint rose by 53 percent. Ballistics experts warn that firearms are now cheap and easily available."

The London Evening Standard reported on December 19, 2001, "Gun crime in London is rocketing, with increases of almost 90 percent in some firearms offenses, Scotland Yard reported today. New figures show London murders with guns increased by 87 percent in the first eight months of the year compared with the same period last year."

With nearly half of the innocent public falling victim to violent crime, the issue of unbridled street thuggery has overwhelmed all else in terms of British domestic issues. All of this in a nation where personal self-defense – armed self-defense – is a crime. And, the inevitable response of government to its failed gun control schemes? A headline in the August 11, 2002, Independent said it all: "Police to demand tougher gun laws."

This year, the political notion of innocent British gun owners paying the price for the acts of madmen has been taken to an even more bizarre extreme by Prime Minister Tony Blair. An April 28^th headline in the Sunday Scotsman announced: "Prompted by shootings in Germany, Tony Blair orders crackdown on convertible air guns."

This call to "control" air guns was keyed to the murderous acts of a deranged, expelled 19-year old student in Germany who killed 17 schoolmates on April 16^th with a handgun. That mass killing led to Germany tightening already strict gun-control laws. But what on earth does that have to do with British subjects who own air guns?

Citing those murders, the Sunday Scotsman said, "The government is now planning further controls on the lethal weapons (air guns), including an across-the-board ban, or at least a registration scheme designed to stop them from falling into the hands of youngsters and high risk buyers."

And how does the victorious gun-ban lobby in England react to the upsurge in crime against an unarmed public? The Gun Control Network – the British equivalent to the Brady Campaign – said, "Of course illegal guns are a big problem but we mustn’t forget that almost all illegal guns start out legal, so it’s not easy to draw a neat line between the two."

On it’s website, the Gun Control Network published an extract which said, "Gun control advocates never predicted that the ban would immediately rid the country of all gun crime." Of course, that’s a flat-out lie. If anybody ever thinks that outlawing firearms from the hands of good, decent citizens creates "a safe society" the example is indeed in England, which proves itself a beacon to armed criminals whose level of violence makes their American counterparts seem meek in comparison.

The real threat of deterrence by an armed citizenry, which certainly exists under American law, is not possible in Great Britain today, not only because of the firearm confiscations, but because using any of the legally held firearms left to British households in defense of self, family, or property is a crime.

Witness the story of Tony Martin, a 54 year-old farmer whose home on a 350-acre rural tract had been repeatedly burglarized and robbed. In fact, thieves had broken into his home and outbuildings at least two dozen times. On the night of August 21, 1999, Martin heard burglars inside his home and confronted the criminals with a shotgun. He wounded one thief and killed another. A third housebreaker got away.

The dead burglar had a history of crimes of violence and crimes against persons and property. He had been arrested for 29 different crimes including burglary, theft, and assaulting police. The two other career criminals had been hauled before the court on criminal offenses a combined 87 times. But it was Tony Martin who was prosecuted with the greatest zeal. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Although Britain’s highest court ultimately reduced Martin’s sentence after changing his conviction to manslaughter, he is still in prison, serving seven years total.

Home Office officials actually consulted wounded burglar Brendon Fearon about whether or not Martin should be subject to parole, and it gets worse. The lengths to which the British government will go to discourage self-defense was revealed in the July 2, 2002, London Daily Mail, where it was disclosed that Fearon had been given £5000 of taxpayers’ money so he could sue Martin for wounding him.

This is the "safe society" created by the work of Britain’s gun-control fanatics:

That’s gun control. And it will prove out in America, too, if citizens ever buy into the notion that there is strength in being defenseless.