AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

The United Kingdom is a nation that seems to do everything it can to neuter its people. I mean, it started with banning guns there, which didn’t do anything to the criminal population but did make it harder for good people to defend themselves.

Then it started restricting speech and penalizing people who said things that weren’t on the approved list.

Now, the UK is treating a man who stood up to freaking terrorists like a damn terrorist.

A man famously lauded as a “hero” in 2017 for fighting off terrorists on the London Bridge has been forced by British authorities to attend “de-radicalization” classes “over fears he may become extremist” after being stabbed eight times, British papers reported.

Forty-nine-year-old Roy Larner became known as the “Lion of London Bridge” after three Jihadis in a van plowed into a crowd of people on London Bridge before stalking from building to building, killing seven people and eventually reaching the Black and Blue pub where Larner was drinking with friends.

“They had these long knives and started shouting about Allah. Then it was, ‘Islam, Islam, Islam,’” Larner said. “Like an idiot I shouted back at them … I took a few steps towards them and said, ‘F[***] you, I’m Millwall,’” he said, referring to his favorite soccer team.

Larner was immediately hailed as a hero around the world. Without a doubt, he was responsible for saving lives. He also signaled to some on this side of the ocean that the British people weren’t as docile as their government seems to want them.

He gave us hope that his nation hadn’t completely lost its way.

That hope is now gone.

Larner has now been added to a terrorist watchlist know as Britain’s “Prevent” program after fears he could become an anti-Islam extremist, the Sun reported Monday.

Larner told the paper “They treat me like a terrorist but I’m not political at all.” The Sun reported he was added because people in the “far right” who were anti-Islam had contacted Roy because of his role stopping the terrorist incident.

So now, because of this, Larner has to go through a re-education program.

I don’t care what they want to call it; it’s a re-education program. I suppose Larner’s fortunate it’s not a camp out in the middle of nowhere with barbed wire and machine guns. Yes, I really think that’s where the UK is heading.

Anyway, Larner has gone from being a hero to being treated like the very terrorists he battled. What’s worse is that he’s being treated this way because someone contacted him.

In other words, he’s being punished because of the actions of someone else. Pathetic.

For we Americans, this is something we have a very difficult time understanding. Freedom of thought should be uninfringeable, yet it seems the UK is doing just that.

I can’t help but wonder how much of this would be going on if they still had an armed populace. I suspect a lot of the worst of these stories simply wouldn’t be happening.

Sounds like another reason to never give up our guns.