Here’s the background [via telegraph.co.uk]: “Sgt [Danny] Nightingale, who served with distinction in Iraq and Afghanistan, was jailed earlier this month after pleading guilty to possessing a Glock pistol given to him by members of the Iraqi special forces he helped train. The weapon was sent back from Iraq in 2007 after Sgt Nightingale left the country, and secured at the SAS’s headquarters before being moved to a house Sgt Nightingale briefly shared with another soldier. The pistol was discovered following a police raid but the sergeant claimed that he had no recollection of owning the pistol after he suffered brain damage in 2009.” Which doesn’t sound plausible, at all. Also, there’ve been accusations of equipment theft and other “anomalies” in the case . . .

None of which have stopped the Nightingale’s ballistic trevails from becoming a cause celebre. The great British public is incensed that the courts have decided to detain a war hero for 18 months at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

But none of the massive media coverage even mentions the fact that Sgt Nightingale’s “crime”—firearms possession—shouldn’t be a crime. The Land of Hope and Glory has strayed so far from  “allowing” individual gun rights that the Queen’s subjects consider the subject beyond contemplation.

To quote the immortal words of the B52’s for those who still believe that an Englishman’s home is his castle, WELL IT ISN’T. Sad but true.

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17 COMMENTS

  2. You would expect that the English learned their lesson after the Viking raids between 800 and 1,000 AD.

    Here is an important history lesson many have forgotten. In Medieval Europe 90% of the population were peasants who were not allowed to own arms or learn to use them. In Scandinavian culture 100% of men were warriors first, farmers second. So when Scandinavians experienced hard economic times, the men got in small boats and started raiding the villages in northern England. The peasants in England had no idea how to protect themselves and were killed or enslaved.

    The Vikings were not Supermen… they were just all armed and trained in the basics. The Europeans just presented them with easy targets. The Vikings did not raid the Noble’s castles. Like any clear thinking thug they attacked easy targets. They raided the monasteries for the gold and the villages for slaves which they then sold to the Arabs. Most people don’t know that the primary source of wealth for the Vikings was the Slaving of European Peasants. The English Nobility while having the duty to defend the peasants were overwhelmed and took defensive positions in their castles (similar to LA Riots and Hurricane Katrina). The Nobility still expected the peasants to pay their taxes and support them.

    In 1066 England was conquered by the Normans, who where Vikings who settled in Northern France.

    History loves to repeat itself.

  3. The dailymail has a more in depth article than the telegraph:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238414/
    The-spouse-Iraq-veteran-jailed-keeping-gun-war-trophy-
    insists-This-way-treat-hero.html

    Does anyone know why his house was raided/searched?
    I still can’t find out why. There are a few other details
    that aren’t adding up about this case.

  4. I do not know their laws of “probable cause” it seems they may be going the same way we are here in the US. By doing away with Due Process of law threw executive orders and unconstitutional laws a possible statement by someone willing to accuse without supporting evidence enough for a search warrent

    • “No Act of Parliament can be unconstitutional, for the law of the land knows not the word or the idea.”

      There’s the British Constitution*.

      *Well, kind of. There are a bunch of Parliamentary acts that grant “rights,” but unlike the US Constitution they’re no more difficult to amend or strike down than any other law.

      • Dan wrote: “There’s the British Constitution*.”

        What is the value of a Constitution (GB, US, etc.)
        if politicians ignore it, dismantle it, circumvent it or infringe it
        and
        a) there are no legal consequences; and
        b) no citizen complains?

        • gunny, I didn’t realize you liked wiping your ass with your bare hand. (There being no written British Constitution and all)

          @gringito, I think the US Constitution’s held up spectacularly well over the past 200 years and 40+ peaceful changes of leadership. There are problems, but let’s avoid hyperbole.

  6. What always strikes me as bitterly ironic is that the American Patriot Fathers took their conviction in the Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms from their English heritage.
    Just goes to show what a great thing it was that we Americans divorced ourselves from the English. otherwise we’d have had to follow their path of social/political/economic de-evolution. OTOH, it can be argued some of us are trying their damnedest to follow the British path. “Forbid it, Almighty God!”

  7. the courage and skills of heroes like him would be better spent overthrowing the despots and terrorists ruling his own country.

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