5/31/00 7:55 p.m.
A Farmer's Tale
Brits are staring down the barrel of a backward system.

By John Derbyshire, NR contributing editor

t is well-nigh impossible for British citizens to get permission to own a handgun, and even farmers seeking a shotgun license now have to undergo extensive checks. Readers familiar with human nature and some history (has anybody, anywhere learned anything from Prohibition?) will not be very surprised to know that, primo, Britain is in the grip of a burglary epidemic, and secondo, there is a flourishing market in illegal firearms.

These two phenomena came together last August 21st when farmer Tony Martin killed a burglar in his house, using an unlicensed shotgun. Mr. Martin had been burgled "dozens of times" before and had taken to sleeping with the weapon close at hand. Local police sprang into action on behalf of the ancient rights and laws of the nation, arresting Mr. Martin and charging him with murder. On April 19th he was sentenced to life imprisonment, to general outrage.

It is now emerging that both jurors and witnesses at Martin's trial were intimidated by members of the "traveling community" to which the burglar belonged (read: Gypsies), and that the bucolic thatched-cottage country district where Mr. Martin farmed is in such a state of unpoliced lex talionis as to make the South Bronx look positively tranquil.

Britons can, however, comfort themselves, as they cower behind barricaded doors and barred windows, with the reflection that at least they are spared those scourges of modern American life — the NRA and its supporters on Congress and right-wing magazines.