In the conversation about immigration, many people are labeled by one side as asylum seekers.
Now, to be clear, asylum seekers have traditionally been people seeking to live in another country because of persecution that they are on the receiving end of in their home country.
I’ll leave it to another time to discuss whether that term is being correctly applied to many of the people labeled asylum seekers today.
What is clear, though, is that one guy from the United Kingdom is actually, truly an asylum seeker fleeing persecution in his home country (hat tip to here for the lead). The reason for the persecution? You may have to read it to believe it. Scott Witner writes,
John Richelieu-Booth is not the kind of person typically associated with firearms controversy. The 50-year-old IT consultant from northern England has no criminal history, no public political profile, and until recently, no experience with guns. That changed after a birthday trip to the United States—and a single social media post.
In July, Richelieu-Booth traveled to the Florida panhandle at the invitation of an American friend to celebrate his 50th birthday over Independence Day weekend. During the visit, his host invited him to try shooting a few firearms on private property. For a British citizen accustomed to some of the most restrictive gun laws in the Western world, the experience was novel—and, by his account, memorable.
He, then, posted one photo of himself holding a shotgun (in the U.S.) on social media, and U.K. law enforcement has made his life hell since.
I wish that I were kidding. I really wish that I were making this up.
This guy broke no laws in the U.S. and appears to have not violated any U.K. gun laws either since he didn’t have possession of a firearm on U.K. soil.
A former business associate apparently filed a complaint with U.K. law enforcement who took the picture, which had no threatening language, no political language, and no reference to that former business associate, as a threat to the former business associate and arrested Richelieu-Booth.
They also confiscated his electronic devices (at 1:30 in the morning, mind you) which prevents him from running his IT consultancy business.
Effectively, because someone had a grudge against him and because left-leaning crackpots are running the show in the U.K., this guy has been deprived of his liberty and his ability to be able to pay his bills.
It’s unAmerican, yes. It also should be unBritish, as the U.K. used to actually believe in civil liberties.
The warning to you and me, though? If those on the political left get their way, they’ll use law enforcement exactly like this to punish you and I simply for wanting to have anything to do with firearms, even without any threat towards anyone else.
Don’t let it happen here, too.