My Memorial Day Tribute to Self Defense
As we honor fallen American heroes this Memorial Day, I would like to pause for a moment in respect for a slain British Soldier:
He was a doting dad, a rabid soccer fan and the life of any party.But above all, Lee Rigby was a British soldier.And a day after he was butchered on a London street — allegedly by a pair of Islamic fanatics — his heartbroken family wanted the world to know that.
British law prevented Rigby, trained in the proper and safe use of firearms, from carrying a gun that could have saved his life. And with plethora of Obama Administration scandals being revealed, it is easy to loose sight of how recently American citizens were pushing back on new and strict federal gun control proposals.
Fortunately American Shirley Roberts of Kansas City was able to exercise an entirely different form of gun control.
A group of thugs figured it would be easy to overpower one Kansas City woman. After all, her husband had just left to run an errand, leaving her all alone in the home.They couldn’t have been more wrong.The woman, later identified as Shirley Roberts, 52, immediately retrieved her gun after she heard someone jiggle the knob of the front door. She also witnessed two additional men heading to the back door.Looking through the blinds, Roberts saw the men putting on gloves and preparing to force their way into her home. So she trained her firearm on the men and opened fire.
Police later arrested the three thugs, one of whom had a gunshot in the chest.
Happily, Americans can still cling to their guns. The British, on the otherhand, may be interested in Bartitsu – The Sherlock Holmes Way of Self-Defense:
When the guy swung at Mark Donnelly, his only means of defense was a black umbrella—and a foppish one at that. But, ducking under a roundhouse punch, he jabbed the pointy end of the umbrella into the attacker’s gut, stopping him cold.Mr. Donnelly, who is 43 years old and several inches short of 6 feet tall, then straightened his waistcoat, and the two men shook hands.The skirmish was a rare demonstration of Bartitsu, an obscure Victorian system of gentlemanly self-defense practiced by Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective.Mr. Donnelly’s assailant was 42-year-old Robert Earhart, a professional stuntman in protective gear.”Is this a good weapon?” Mr. Donnelly, clutching the umbrella, asked a crowd of several dozen here last weekend at the Steampunk World’s Fair, an annual steam-age science-fiction festival. “It is if it’s in my hands at the time of attack.”Other items in the Bartitsu arsenal include walking sticks, top hats, snuffboxes, handkerchiefs or “any item a gentleman would have at his disposal,” says Mr. Donnelly.
In conclusion, my gratitude goes out to the American men, women, and families who paid the highest possible price for all the liberties, including those related to self-defense, that my family and I now enjoy. God bless and keep you all.
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