Gullible? Nope. Concerned? Yup.
On the issue of self defense in England, I don’t think the gun bloggers are gullible. Tim Lambert thinks that they are. Tim notes (and I agree) that the British media is misrepresenting the law regarding self defense:
The Daily Telegraph’s campaign is nothing more than a beat up to create an issue to attack the government with. The truly disgraceful thing about their scare campaign is that it could convince people that self-defence is unlawful and frighten them out of defending themselves against an attacker, resulting in injury or even death of a crime victim.
That is, I think, a valid concern. In England, it is not illegal to defend yourself. However, under the letter of the law, it is quite difficult to legally defend yourself:
To show self-defence you must:
1. show that you reasonably fear immediate attack.
2. show that you had no alternative avenue of escaping the attack. If you can, you must run away.
3. your response must be proportionate to the threat. If someone threatens you with a balloon, you may not respond with a knife. If your own life is not under threat you cannot threaten somebody else’s life.
Fleeing is not conducive to any self defense. If you are attacked and your back is turned, you simply cannot effectively defend yourself. That combined with the fact that no one should be forced to flee from their own home under rule of law, makes the assertion that people in the UK already have the right to defend themselves against burglars or anyone else who threatens them a bit misleading. So, in England, if you’re backed into a corner, you can defend yourself.