An excellent column from Michelle Malkin.
In defense of an armed
citizenry
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
WITH THE ANNIVERSARIES of Waco,
Oklahoma City, Ruby Ridge, and Columbine fast
approaching, those of us who keep and bear
arms will once again be scapegoated and
demonized by press and politicians. We will be
cast as the nation's greatest threat to our
children's safety and ostracized as
anti-government extremists.
But if it weren't for the courage and convictions
of an armed citizenry willing to go to extremes,
none of us would be here today.
This week marks another anniversary that will
undoubtedly be overlooked by the gun-control
juggernaut: April 19, 1775 is Patriots Day. It's a
legal holiday in Massachusetts and Maine
commemorating the battles of Lexington and
Concord. Surely, the anniversary of the start of
the Revolutionary War ought to be a national
holiday.
Fed up with Mother England's oppressive taxes
and infringements on their right to
self-government, colonial subjects in
Massachusetts formed their own shadow
government. The state's Provincial Congress
urged town militias to train and collect weapons.
Gov. Thomas Gage, commander of the British
troops, demanded that the Massachusetts
assembly disband. When it refused, the British
directed Gage to destroy rebel munitions.
Beginning in the fall of 1774, Gage's troops
attempted to raid military storage depots in
Cambridge and Salem. Citizens in Concord and
neighboring towns formed companies to "stand at
a minute's warning in case of an alarm." These
quick-response teams– known as the minutemen
– drilled thrice weekly and prepared for armed
resistance.
On April 18, 1775, a young boy overheard the
Redcoats plotting the capture of revolutionary
leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock. Paul
Revere embarked on a heroic midnight ride to
warn his countrymen. The rest, of course, is
history – history that fewer and fewer young
Americans are taught in public schools. How
many students "know the rest," in Longfellow's
famous words, "in the books you have read:"
"How the British Regulars fired and fled,
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
>From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load."
By dawn on April 19, 1775, some 70 minutemen
had gathered at Lexington to oppose British
troops – 700 strong -- headed from Boston to
Concord. As the organizers of Battle Road 2000,
which is re-enacting these events this week, recount the scene at
Lexington Green: "A shot rang out. No one really knows who fired first,
but the British, hearing the shot, fired upon the small group of militia, killing
8, and wounding 10 more. The militia then retreated into the woods to
avoid the British fire. So started the first battle in the American
Revolutionary War."
Soon after, the Redcoats reached Concord and encountered between 300
and 400 armed minutemen at the famed North Bridge over the Concord
River. The British troops retreated toward Boston. By the end of the day,
nearly 100 colonialists had fallen for the cause of freedom.
It's hard to believe that one of the most liberal, pro-tax, anti-gun states in
the country today was the home of the musket-toting sons and daughters
of liberty.
Two centuries after the minutemen used their guns to oppose unreasonable
tyranny, the state of Massachusetts clamped trigger locks on two of the
historic muskets from Lexington and Concord that hang in the state Senate
chamber. The Patriots Day celebration this year was nearly derailed
because of stringent gun-control laws embraced by the state. Last week,
the Massachusetts attorney general greatly expanded his regulatory
oversight of guns as "consumer products" and announced plans to conduct
sting operations – a la Thomas Gage -- on federally-licensed dealers.
Elsewhere, thirty cities and counties have filed 20 separate lawsuits against
the gun industry. The grip of gun-control hysteria has even led one New
Jersey nursery school to expel four toddlers for simply pretending to shoot
guns with their index fingers. And a million misguided moms will march
against gun ownership next month in Washington, D.C.
Who would have guessed that the shots heard 'round the world 225 years
ago would fall on deaf ears in a nation now more sympathetic to the
gun-grabbing Redcoat than the gun-bearing rebel?
In defense of an armed
citizenry
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
WITH THE ANNIVERSARIES of Waco,
Oklahoma City, Ruby Ridge, and Columbine fast
approaching, those of us who keep and bear
arms will once again be scapegoated and
demonized by press and politicians. We will be
cast as the nation's greatest threat to our
children's safety and ostracized as
anti-government extremists.
But if it weren't for the courage and convictions
of an armed citizenry willing to go to extremes,
none of us would be here today.
This week marks another anniversary that will
undoubtedly be overlooked by the gun-control
juggernaut: April 19, 1775 is Patriots Day. It's a
legal holiday in Massachusetts and Maine
commemorating the battles of Lexington and
Concord. Surely, the anniversary of the start of
the Revolutionary War ought to be a national
holiday.
Fed up with Mother England's oppressive taxes
and infringements on their right to
self-government, colonial subjects in
Massachusetts formed their own shadow
government. The state's Provincial Congress
urged town militias to train and collect weapons.
Gov. Thomas Gage, commander of the British
troops, demanded that the Massachusetts
assembly disband. When it refused, the British
directed Gage to destroy rebel munitions.
Beginning in the fall of 1774, Gage's troops
attempted to raid military storage depots in
Cambridge and Salem. Citizens in Concord and
neighboring towns formed companies to "stand at
a minute's warning in case of an alarm." These
quick-response teams– known as the minutemen
– drilled thrice weekly and prepared for armed
resistance.
On April 18, 1775, a young boy overheard the
Redcoats plotting the capture of revolutionary
leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock. Paul
Revere embarked on a heroic midnight ride to
warn his countrymen. The rest, of course, is
history – history that fewer and fewer young
Americans are taught in public schools. How
many students "know the rest," in Longfellow's
famous words, "in the books you have read:"
"How the British Regulars fired and fled,
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
>From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load."
By dawn on April 19, 1775, some 70 minutemen
had gathered at Lexington to oppose British
troops – 700 strong -- headed from Boston to
Concord. As the organizers of Battle Road 2000,
which is re-enacting these events this week, recount the scene at
Lexington Green: "A shot rang out. No one really knows who fired first,
but the British, hearing the shot, fired upon the small group of militia, killing
8, and wounding 10 more. The militia then retreated into the woods to
avoid the British fire. So started the first battle in the American
Revolutionary War."
Soon after, the Redcoats reached Concord and encountered between 300
and 400 armed minutemen at the famed North Bridge over the Concord
River. The British troops retreated toward Boston. By the end of the day,
nearly 100 colonialists had fallen for the cause of freedom.
It's hard to believe that one of the most liberal, pro-tax, anti-gun states in
the country today was the home of the musket-toting sons and daughters
of liberty.
Two centuries after the minutemen used their guns to oppose unreasonable
tyranny, the state of Massachusetts clamped trigger locks on two of the
historic muskets from Lexington and Concord that hang in the state Senate
chamber. The Patriots Day celebration this year was nearly derailed
because of stringent gun-control laws embraced by the state. Last week,
the Massachusetts attorney general greatly expanded his regulatory
oversight of guns as "consumer products" and announced plans to conduct
sting operations – a la Thomas Gage -- on federally-licensed dealers.
Elsewhere, thirty cities and counties have filed 20 separate lawsuits against
the gun industry. The grip of gun-control hysteria has even led one New
Jersey nursery school to expel four toddlers for simply pretending to shoot
guns with their index fingers. And a million misguided moms will march
against gun ownership next month in Washington, D.C.
Who would have guessed that the shots heard 'round the world 225 years
ago would fall on deaf ears in a nation now more sympathetic to the
gun-grabbing Redcoat than the gun-bearing rebel?