Last year, I held an unofficial contest to see whether the United Kingdom or the United States had the dumbest bureaucrats and/or most absurd examples of political correctness.
Since that time, I’ve posted additional examples of gross government stupidity from both sides of the Atlantic. From the United Kingdom, we have these gems.
- An effort to stop children from watching Olympic shooting events.
- The most pointless sign in the history of the world.
- An ID requirement to buy dangerous products such as teaspoons.
But American officials have been busy as well, with impressive displays of incompetence and stupidity.
- Preventing a girl from boarding a plane because her purse had an image of a gun .
- A local school calling the police because a little girl kissed a little boy in gym class.
- An ID requirement in Illinois to buy drain cleaner.
Now it’s time to revisit this contest. The United Kingdom has decided to arrest a man for the horrific crime of shooting some thugs that broke into his home. Here are some details from a column in the Telegraph.
A farm tenant and his wife who were arrested after two suspected burglars were shot at their isolated home had been the victims of a number of robberies. …The man is believed to have grabbed a legally owned gun after they were disturbed by the break-in early yesterday. He is understood to have fired at the intruders who then fled the isolated house at Melton Mowbray, Leics, before calling the police. …The arrested man’s mother said: “This is not the first time they have been broken into. “They have been robbed three or four times. One of them was quite nasty. …the businessman and his wife were arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. Four men, understood to be the suspected burglars, were also arrested.
“Arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm”? Isn’t that the point when confronting criminals?!?
Though I guess we should be happy that the burglars also were arrested. And given the country’s oppressive gun control laws, I’m pleasantly surprised that there are still a few legal guns in the United Kingdom.
But that’s about the only silver lining I can find to this dark cloud.
Moreover, it turns out that the U.K. has a track record of persecuting the innocent. The column mentions outrageous examples.
The case will reignite the debate over a householder’s right to defend his property, which began in the late 1990s after the farmer Tony Martin shot two burglars at his remote Norfolk home. In 1999, Martin fired at Brendan Fearon, 29, and Fred Barras, 16, after they broke into the house in Emneth Hungate. Three shots were fired, Barras was hit in the back and despite escaping through a window died moments later. Martin was convicted of murder and jailed for life, which was reduced on appeal to manslaughter and five years’ jail. In 2009, the millionaire businessman Munir Hussain fought back with a metal pole and a cricket bat against a knife-wielding burglar who tied up his family at their home in Buckinghamshire. Hussain was jailed for two and a half years, despite his attacker being spared prison. Appeal judges reduced the sentence to a year’s jail, suspended. The case prompted David Cameron to announce that home owners and shopkeepers would have the right to protect themselves against burglars and robbers.
I’m glad to see, by the way, that David Cameron is at least saying supportive things about people having the right to self defense. I’ve hammered Cameron for undermining the U.K.’s system of personal retirement accounts, giving taxpayer money to statist environmental groups, increasing the capital gains tax, increasing the burden of government spending, and whining that it is wrong for people to minimize their tax burdens.
But I also believe in giving credit where it’s due, so I’m glad he wants to change the law. I hope that includes the right to shoot burglars.
That would put the U.K. ahead of Illinois, though that’s a very low bar to clear.
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