The American Revolution begins ~ April 19, 1775

At about 5 a.m., 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, march into Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town’s common green. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment’s hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the “shot heard around the world” was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or dying and 10 others were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the American Revolution had begun.

By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and trained militias to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops occupying Boston. In the spring of 1775, General Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, received instructions from England to seize all stores of weapons and gunpowder accessible to the American insurgents. On April 18, he ordered British troops to march against the Patriot arsenal at Concord and capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington.

The Boston Patriots had been preparing for such a military action by the British for some time, and upon learning of the British plan, Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes were ordered to set out to rouse the militiamen and warn Adams and Hancock. When the British troops arrived at Lexington, Adams, Hancock, and Revere had already fled to Philadelphia, and a group of militiamen were waiting. The Patriots were routed within minutes, but warfare had begun, leading to calls to arms across the Massachusetts countryside.

When the British troops reached Concord at about 7 a.m., they found themselves encircled by hundreds of armed Patriots. They managed to destroy the military supplies the Americans had collected but were soon advanced against by a gang of minutemen, who inflicted numerous casualties. Lieutenant Colonel Frances Smith, the overall commander of the British force, ordered his men to return to Boston without directly engaging the Americans. As the British retraced their 16-mile journey, their lines were constantly beset by Patriot marksmen firing at them Indian-style from behind trees, rocks, and stone walls. At Lexington, Captain Parker’s militia had its revenge, killing several British soldiers as the Red Coats hastily marched through his town. By the time the British finally reached the safety of Boston, nearly 300 British soldiers had been killed, wounded, or were missing in action. The Patriots suffered fewer than 100 casualties.

The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American Revolution, a conflict that would escalate from a colonial uprising into a world war that, seven years later, would give birth to the independent United States of America.

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Per Gun-Grabbers, April 19 Commemorates Armed Citizen ‘Treason’ against Government

By David Codrea

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- On this day in 1775, volunteer Minuteman militia leader Captain John Parker, along with over 70 of his neighbors, stood their ground against government enforcers. They refused to disarm and defended themselves against lethal coercion. From the point of view of those who would rule them, these brave Patriots committed treason.

That’s the position of latter-day gun-grabbers. It brings to mind an episode from years past, when colleague Kurt Hofmann wrote a rebuttal to tyrannophiles who argued, among other things, that armed citizens would be helpless to resist a government armed with sophisticated weaponry that included tanks and more. His carefully explained response, which did not violate any laws or incite anyone to commit violence, was seized upon by the conveniently-renamed Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (that plays better with those who don’t know any better than the “National Coalition to Ban Handguns,” which wants to ban more than that anyway).

They were so outraged by his column they not only tried to get Kurt shut down, they also wanted the FBI to “bring an action against him.” Since CSGV called me out by name too, as a supportive associate of Kurt’s, I invited them to report me as well. I even notified FBI myself.

That was hardly a first experience with these violence monopolists. A few years earlier, in an attempt to smear invited speakers to the Second Amendment March in Washington, D.C., they actually publicly lied about what I had written.

Per CSGV, any attempt to resist tyranny is treasonous insurrection. And treason is a capital offense.

Tench Coxe

So who should you believe? All parties to this dispute obviously have a dog in the fight. How about we consult one of the Founders, say, Tench Coxe, a prominent “gun owner rights” advocate of his day:

“As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.” (Tench Coxe in ‘Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution’ under the Pseudonym ‘A Pennsylvanian’ in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1)

“Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American…. [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.” (Tench Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.)

Read more at Ammoland

Photo credit: Line of the Minute Men Memorial, Lexington: Is it a coincidence latter-day gun-grabbers hate the very concept of “Stand Your Ground”? (Detroit Publishing Company/Library of Congress)

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