An Anglican

vicar in England is looking for new work now that he's been defrocked

for owning a handgun, according to an article by Joel Miller in the Sept.

20 edition of WorldNetDaily.com.

Miller writes,

"After receiving a tip earlier in the year, police requested to search

the home of American-born Rev. Michael Daggett, a former antiques dealer,

looking for weapons. A little bird told the bobbies that Daggett had,

as the Manchester Evening News put it, 'a powerful fast firing modern

clip gun.' He didn't. What he did have was still verboten under British

law, an antique .22 caliber Derringer pistol and ammunition the kind swanky

women hide in their garters in Westerns - hidden behind the face of a

grandfather clock.

"Not wanting

any additional trouble from the authorities, Daggett told them immediately

about the gun and produced it for them. Busted. Rather than fight in court,

the 55-year-old vicar of the Church of Holy Rood in Manchester pled guilty.

The results were predictable. After citing fears that the small-caliber

lady's gun might be stolen and used in heinous and unspeakable acts of

criminal mayhem, the judge sentenced Daggett to four months. A short stay,

but enough to lose him his job, as church law forbids priests from retaining

office if convicted of a charge that carries a jail term.

"Daggett

thinks the court was using him to send a message to others who would dare

stash something so dangerous as a .22 handgun in their grandfather clocks.

'Because I was in a responsible position in the community and not some

head-banging drug dealer, the judiciary had to be seen to discredit me.

I was therefore dealt with in the most visible way possible and jailed,'

he told the Manchester Evening News.

"Citing

as evidence of his selective prosecution, Daggett points to another case

in which a British man 'fired an unlicensed shotgun at two men on his

property. He had called the police but they had not turned out. He injured

one of them after shooting at their car, yet he walked free from court.'

It might look bad busting a guy for defending his property when the cops

didn't have the courtesy to show up and take care of business themselves.

Daggett didn't have such an excuse.

"Now forced

to ponder new job possibilities, Daggett maintains he was shafted. 'I

would claim the gun laws in this country are illegal. Under a 1688 Bill

of Rights, which has never been repealed, it says that everyone has the

right to possess a weapon for self-defense.' Actually the 1688 Bill of

Rights specifically says that 'Protestants may have Arms for their Defence,'

but Daggett is an Anglican, so he's covered. Except in the age of liberty-squashing

Leviathan, he's not. The law tags on this spoiler: 'suitable to their

Conditions and as allowed by Law.'

"So like

the statists who taffy-pull the phrase 'well regulated Militia' in the

Second Amendment out of context, the power-addled British pols have whittled

away the protections of the Bill of Rights until the law means nothing

like its writers had intended. Indeed one of the charges leveled against

Catholic King James II after the Glorious Revolution in 1688 - which gave

birth to the British Bill of Rights - was that of 'causing several good

Subjects, being Protestants, to be disarmed.' The purpose wasn't to disarm

Papists, but to make sure Protestants were armed, too.

"The Bill

of Rights was penned to restore the right of 'good Subjects' to own firearms

for individual and collective self-defense. Now, however, those good subjects

- even priests - are jailed for owning firearms, no matter how piddling.

'I grew up in a culture where firearms were very much accepted,' said

Daggett. 'The Second Amendment of the American Constitution makes it a

right of every person to bear a firearm for their own protection. No police

force can guarantee the safety of citizens, therefore it comes down to

the individual to take responsibility for that safety. Is self-defense

not a human right?'

"Apparently

not in England."

[Father David

Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church in the

Coweta/Fayette County area of south metro Atlanta. He may be contacted

at [email protected] or at www.ctkcec.org.]