It’s easy for Americans to forget just how different Great Britain is from our own nation. We share a language and were once one of their colonies and all that, but culturally we’re very, very different. They like different TV shows and music–though, to be fair, there is some overlap from time to time. They’re not like us in a whole lot of ways.
And guns are a primary example.
That’s not a point I forget, but I got a stark reminder when I read the report of this robbery in England.
A robbery gang wearing balaclavas and clutching guns and a machete stormed a home in a quiet Teesside village.So a weapon-wielding gang busted into the house and robbed the homeowners at gunpoint.
Armed officers flooded the quiet cul-de-sac in Elwick village, near Hartlepool , on Tuesday night.
Cleveland Police say five men entered the property and threatened those inside the semi-detached house on Greenlea at around 8.30pm.
After brandishing the firearm and the large knife, the gang then got away in an Audi S3 vehicle belonging to the victims.
You know how that goes here in the U.S.?
**Busts in the door**We have examples of, more or less, this very scenario playing out. It always works out better; not just for the residents but also the community as a whole. The bad guys sometimes survive, of course, but when they don’t then the community doesn’t have to pay for trials or confinement. If they do, then they’re typically much easier for the police to find.
Crook #1: Give me all your mon-
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! As the homeowner draws his or her firearm and begins putting rounds into bad guys until they’re either dead or have run away.
Homeowner: Honey? Think we should call the police now?
Homeowners spouse: Might as well. We could use some help cleaning this mess.
No, not everyone has a gun and can respond like that, but a lot of people do. That means criminals have to consider just what they’re walking into before they try that kind of a brazen assault on a home. They have to wonder if they’re going to walk out of there or not.
And, frankly, if you put a few more in the ground when they tried, I suspect you’d have a lot fewer of them in the first place.
Yet British law didn’t give those homeowners above any kind of a choice. They were disarmed as a matter of law. They couldn’t fight back, even if they wanted to, and that is inhumane in my book.
Any law that makes people victims is a law that should simply not exist. The ability to defend ourselves against any kind of attack is something we should all enjoy regardless of what country we call home.
Unfortunately, the Brits don’t feel the same way. They restrict the basic human rights of their citizens to the point that I can’t even consider them a free country.
And that’s why I’m not giving up my guns any time soon.
