LEXINGTON AND CONCORD - RESISTING THE FIRST GUN GRABBERS

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  There was once a time in America when you could mention a particular historical event or important person in history and just about every school child would know what or who you were talking about. For example you could mention the "shot heard round the world" or Paul Revere's ride, or Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death speech" and most children would know what you were talking about. I am not sure that is the case any more. Our educational system is dumbing us down at an alarming rate. April 19, 1775 was the day the United States of America began. The battle of Lexington and Concord occurred on that day. We can talk about all the reasons that the war happened. The English mercantile system that imposed economic tyranny on the colonies. "Taxation without representation". Yet the war started over the very issue that is being debated in this country right now and is as old of an issue as America itself. Gun control.

  The American Revolution was first and foremost a Civil War. Paul Revere and William Dawes did not say the "British are coming" because we were all British subjects. They said that the "Regulars" are coming. We were fighting against the tyranny established by our own government in London and being imposed by the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Gage. Our government in England was furious over the Boston Tea Party that had destroyed a huge quantity of their tea. Our government imposed what the Colonists defined as the "Intolerable Acts" that closed the port of Boston among other things along with imposing martial law on Bostonians. The thing that the Colonists were the most upset about was the attempt to confiscate guns and gunpowder. An Act by Parliament in 1774 put a ban on firearms and gunpowder. In 1774 and 1775 the British Regulars under orders from Governor Thomas Gage actively tried to confiscate the Colonists firearms. Particularly their gunpowder. He sent the Army to break up a town meeting in Salem Massachusetts and 3'000 armed men showed up causing the "Redcoats" to retreat. A Colonist said "that in the event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upon us by strength of arms, our cause we leave to heaven and our rifles". 

  Gage's aide John Andrews explained that " everyone in the area 16 years or older owned a gun and plenty of gunpowder". Colonial laws generally required all militiamen and sometimes householders to have a firearm and gunpowder. Not everyone could afford it so they stored gunpowder in special armories for these people and the fact that gunpowder at that time was unsafe to store in large quantities at home. The "Redcoats" were primarily trying to confiscate the Colonists gunpowder that was stored at Lexington and Concord and the American Revolution began because the Colonists said not only no but "hell no"! Don't ever let anyone tell you that the 2nd Amendment is not relevant today. It is just as relevant today as it was then. John Locke said it best. "When the thief enters your home and binds you up he can not only rob you of your liberty but it is in his power to rob you of your life. Yet when the government becomes the thief then there is no one to appeal to but heaven". I might add, just like the patriot of old "and our rifles".

Paul Revere

Paul Revere Warning The Colonists

Concord Bridge

The Battle Of Concord

Concord Bridge Today