Squirrelly confrontation. (Exercising the Right).

Britain's domestic disarmament regimen, often lauded by U.S. anti-gun zealots, has come under heavy fire in recent months. On November 8th, for instance, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that the "rising level of gun crime on Britain's streets is putting increased pressure on hospital staff who have to deal with the victims." Noting that recent "Home Office figures show that the number of offences where firearms were used went up by nearly 10% last year," the BBC quoted a former Army medic as saying that medical personnel "are for the first time seeing gunshot wounds on a regular basis."

Such are the fruits of anti-gun regulations that disarm peaceful citizens and leave them defenseless against criminals who simply ignore the laws anyway. Yet armed Brits still rise to the occasion and help restore order in their communities, even when the violent troublemaker is nonhuman.

Recently, the town of Knutsford in central England was besieged for several days by an extraordinarily vicious gray squirrel. The rodent's victims included a man attacked while mowing his lawn and a woman bitten on the ankle as she walked along a street. The latter, Sheila Eyre, described the creature as "the squirrel from hell." "I pulled away but he just kept coming back at me," she told the November 7th London Times. "It was a bit of a shock. You don't expect that sort of thing from a little furry squirrel. Everyone is now scared to go out. He has caused chaos all over the neighbourhood."

The November 6th Knutsford Guardian quoted one town resident as saying, "We're scared to leave our windows open and we can't hang our ...