Op-Ed: Right to self-defense is worth preserving

January 15, 2004
Toledo Blade

Many Englishmen feel twice victimized, by intruder and government

By EILEEN FOLEY

As a concealed-carry law moved toward Gov. Taft's desk, and he said "I look forward to signing it," Americans must look appreciatively to Britain and rejoice that we shucked the colonial yoke.

Why? Because there self-defense is a crime, burglars have sued homeowners who shoot them, and a homeowner can be denied parole if he's believed to be dangerous to burglars.

Click on the "Read More...: link below for more.

Just ask Norfolk farmer Tony Martin.

A few days before the gun-rights victory here, a British member of Parliament, Stephen Pound, told audiences of the popular BBC Radio4 TODAY show that the results of one of its polls had "highly dampened" his taste for direct democracy.

Well, as Zsa Zsa Gabor once said, "Macho isn't mucho," so it behooves the Labor MP from Ealing North to correct his course, to keep his word. Radio4 TODAY listeners, whom he writes off as yahoos, deserve the attention he promised.

Mr. Pound, whom the BBC describes as "a self-mocking bruiser who takes pride in being rough around the edges," had volunteered to introduce in parliament the choice of a majority of TODAY listeners for a new law for 2004.

The short list had five choices. To his distress, the winner was the popular "Martin's Law." It would let a person use any means to defend his home from intrusion. "Any" is code for gun.

Since the British a few years ago outlawed most handguns, there's been an upsurge of unwelcome, and often armed, intrusions into what were once Englishmen's castles. Trust bad actors to favor sitting ducks.

American researcher John Lott said break-ins in England increasingly occur while people are at home, because the risk of an armed defense has been removed. Many Englishmen feel twice victimized, by intruder and government, which makes criminals of them if they whack a felon committing a crime against them.

"The people have spoken, the bastards," said Mr. Pound, albeit with levity, quoting someone he couldn't identify. (It was the late Arizona Democratic Congressman Morris K. Udall, a losing presidential candidate with winning humor.)

Mr. Pound did a lot of sputtering about never agreeing to allow anyone to shoot a 16-year-old in the back. He was referring to Martin, who shot-gunned two would-be thieves on his premises, killing one, hitting the other, a career criminal, in the leg and groin. He had been victimized before and had never been able to get police help. Out of jail now after first being denied parole as a threat to burglars, Martin promises no quarter to future intruders.

A shot in the back would be prosecutable bad form here, too, though exasperation such as Martin bore might be as exculpatory as it was for him. That's because though stealing property is in effect stealing the time it took one to afford its price - that time being a piece of one's life - crimes of property don't have death penalties in civilized venues. In addition, Britain has no death penalty, rightly braking individual acts.

Farmer Martin has become a national folk hero as well as a pariah among nanny-state officialdom - it went after groups that raised money for Martin and a newspaper that paid him for his story. That illustrates a scary distance between electors and electees.

The TODAY voting did illustrate how sensible the English are across the board. Among the five-proposal shortlist there was no bombast about flag-burning, prayer in school, or commandments writ on government property. Their issues were not politically charged razzmatazz.

Mr. Pound liked the second-place winner. It said, in effect, that the organs of anyone who died could be culled for transplant if they hadn't officially opted out on a transplant registry. Given the lives that could be saved, this people's choice item should be encouraged here - success in Britain could help that happen.

In third place was a bill to ban smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants. People should not have to be exposed to toxins in order to make a living.

Fourth place went to a proposal to limit a prime minister's terms and make compulsory general election voting. To not vote, one must check a "no vote" box on the ballot.

Being something of a bah, humbug, person, I especially liked the fifth-place proposal that would ban all Christmas advertising and municipal street decorations until Dec. 1.

Ohioans who have been free to defend themselves at home may now be legal about it while on the move. As Britain has shown us, self-defense is a precious right, but one requiring personal responsibility and good judgment in its exercise. We ought not screw it up.