We’re just shy of two weeks away from the 4th of July at the time of this writing, and it seems like an especially good time to reveal some history to you that you almost certainly don’t know.
What is that history? It’s about the real cause of the American Revolution.
In my case, and, I suspect it’s the same for most Americans, I was taught that the American Revolution was fought over taxation issues. Specifically, people were angry because they felt like they were being taxed but didn’t have any representation in the British Parliament.
It’s true, by the way, that the American colonists were angry about the taxation and because they felt like they had no voice in the British government ruling over them.
But that wasn’t the straw the broke the proverbial camel’s back. Michael Boldin, writing for the Tenth Amendment Center, gives us a quick summation of the details:
[In early 1775], British troops began their fateful mission – ordered to seize arms and powder.
The people didn’t wait to be disarmed. They stood their ground.
Shots were fired.
And the War for Independence began – with a fight against gun control.
On July 6, 1775, the Second Continental Congress made that view official in the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, which was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson.
“In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birth-right, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it; for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our forefathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms.”
The fighting didn’t start over taxes or representation. It started out of self defense against a gun control program being enforced through violence.
“We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.”
The facts of the situation bring clarity that anti-2A activists won’t like. The Second Amendment was never about hunting (though, that right exists, too). The Second Amendment was always about individuals defending themselves against a government oppressing them and trying to micromanage their lives.
You know, the same kind of government that most anti-2A activists want to inflict upon us now.
So, as you celebrate American independence, remember that it all started because of gun control, and that’s both why we are independent and why we have the Second Amendment. Celebrate our independence by carrying everyday.
