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<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>1. I was not talking to you. Your assumptions are in
error and the logic that allowed you to make the leap are
imbecilic.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>2. What exactly do you want me to "detail?" The uses
that a legal to purchase and own AR15 (the bushmaster being a
variant) are put to? The difference between a automatic and semi-automatic
rifle? If you imagine I'm in error why don't you draw upon your wealth of
experience to set me straight?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>3. I have been a hunter and recreational shooter
for approaching 40 years and will be willing to bet that I have put
far more rounds downrange then you have (not that this has any real bearing on
the discussion or qualifies me as any sort of expert) and would think that if
you had all the savvy you say you have would know to difference between the M16
and the AR15. I'm sorry but the rest of your resume has precious little bearing
on the discussion.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>4. Trying to carry on a rational discussion with
an fool demands sustenance. As a result I am going to haul my fat ass off
to the kitchen for a samich, I'm famished.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>g</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma">
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title="mailto:thansen@moscow.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com">Tom Hansen</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, December 23, 2012 6:46 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A
title="mailto:jampot@roadrunner.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:jampot@roadrunner.com">Gary Crabtree</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A
title="mailto:philosopher.joe@gmail.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:philosopher.joe@gmail.com">Joe Campbell</A> ; <A
title="mailto:mattd2107@hotmail.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:mattd2107@hotmail.com">Matt Decker</A> ; <A
title="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com>
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com>"><vision2020@moscow.com></A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] And just something to think
about......</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Care to share a link with us, Mr. Crabtree, that details those points you
mention?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Or are we simply to take your word at face value?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Since I share the sentiment identical to that of Joe Campbell, I assume
that you are addressing me, as well, with your reference to "<SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Calibri; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)">people
who have a limited knowledge of firearms pipe up with their under
informed opinions".</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)"><BR></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)">During
my 20 years with the US Army (14 years in administration, 6 years in the
infantry), Mr. Crabtree . . . </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)"><BR></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)">I
maintained and qualified annually with an M16 and a
.45 </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)"><BR></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)">I
served four years as a unit armorer, maintaining M16s, M60 machine guns, M203
grenade launchers, and a sundry of other weapons that I don't wish to sit here
and explain to some over-weight locksmith.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)"><BR></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)">I
served three years as a platoon sergeant in an infantry line unit, whose duties
you couldn't begin to fathom.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)"><BR></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)">And
before I enlisted I sat across the dinner table from a man who was a Los Angeles
police officer . . . who shared stories about patrolling Los Angeles, virtually
everything from a walking beat at a community fair in Sherman Oaks in '58 to
riot control in Lynnwood (just outside Watts) in '65.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)"><BR></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469)">I
suggest you learn a thing or two about the people you are addressing before you
make unfounded allegations.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR>
<DIV>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>"Moscow Cares"</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Tom Hansen</DIV>
<DIV>Moscow, Idaho</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR>On Dec 23, 2012, at 5:49 AM, "Gary Crabtree" <<A
title="mailto:jampot@roadrunner.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:jampot@roadrunner.com">jampot@roadrunner.com</A>>
wrote:<BR><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.7601.17998">
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>This is the problem when people who have a
limited knowledge of firearms pipe up with their under informed opinions.
The so called assault rifle used in the most recent tragedy was a
semi-automatic rifle not an automatic. It is also one of the finest varmint
rifles on the market. It is used extensively in the west for coyote control
and in the south to hunt feral hogs. It is used everywhere to control ground
squirrels and prairie dogs. It is also a very common used weapon for small
bore target competition and bench rest shooting.</FONT><FONT
face=Calibri> It is an excellent tool for purposes such as these and
hardly a toy.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>Automatic firearms while legal are much more tightly
controlled and you would be very hard pressed to point to a shooting where one
was used. While I won't go so far as to say it has never happened, (I know of
no incidence) I am sure that it would come to an extremely tiny fraction
of a percent of total firearms crime.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>Lastly, do you really want to start banning products
based on "need?" Do you want to hand over control of what you can and cant do
or own to what others think you should have? Does liberty mean nothing to you
or is it a case of since I personally don't own any given item no one else
should either?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>g</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma">
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title="mailto:philosopher.joe@gmail.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:philosopher.joe@gmail.com">Joe Campbell</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, December 23, 2012 2:11 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=mattd2107@hotmail.com
href="mailto:mattd2107@hotmail.com">Matt Decker</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A
title="mailto:thansen@moscow.com>
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com>"><thansen@moscow.com></A> ; <A
title="mailto:jampot@roadrunner.com>
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:jampot@roadrunner.com>"><jampot@roadrunner.com></A> ; <A
title="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] And just something to think
about......</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>And why can't you admit that folks buy automatic weapons for toys and
nothing more. Regular guns will provide just as much personal protection.
There is no need, not one that I can see, for automatic weapons. You are
certainly not going to form militias to overtake the tyrannical US government
if all you have are automatic weapons. You'll need a lot more than that,
right? Name one practical use of an automatic weapon that you don't have with
plan old rifles and handguns?<BR><BR>On Dec 23, 2012, at 12:20 AM, Matt Decker
<<A href="mailto:mattd2107@hotmail.com">mattd2107@hotmail.com</A>>
wrote:<BR><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr>Tom, <BR> <BR>Getting rid of all high capacity
magazines and "assualt weapons" will not solve the growing death rate
from gun fatalities. We need to look into alternative ideas. Taking
away one aspect of the problem is a band-aid. Looking up gun related
fatalities for 2012, assualt rifles and weapons with higher
capcity magazines accounted for around fifteen percent of the deaths. Most
of those were gang and drug related.<BR> <BR>Recently in sports, two
players have commited suicide with weapons that you would account for as
"OK". We need to discuss alternative measures. Such as mental health,
stronger regulations when purchasing weapons, stonger applications for
CWP permits. Stuff like that. Actual problem solvers. We have citzens who
have a license to carry and or sell fully automatic weapons. They have to
apply and gain those licenses through a strict application period. I
have yet to hear of a "rambo" with two m60 machine guns walking into a food
co-op and slaughtering 54 peacenics. <BR> <BR>Let's all
work together and solve this problem.<BR> <BR>Just my
thought.<BR> <BR>Matt<BR> <BR>
<DIV>
<DIV id=SkyDrivePlaceholder></DIV>
<HR id=stopSpelling>
From: <A href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com">thansen@moscow.com</A><BR>Date:
Sat, 22 Dec 2012 18:11:20 -0800<BR>To: <A
href="mailto:jampot@roadrunner.com">jampot@roadrunner.com</A><BR>CC: <A
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A><BR>Subject:
Re: [Vision2020] And just something to think about......<BR><BR>
<DIV>For the umpteenth-plus time . . .</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>CRIMINALIZE THE SALE AND/OR POSSESSION OF . . . DO AWAY WITH . . . MAKE
ILLEGAL . . . COLLECT AND DESTROY ALL . . . SEMI-AUTOMATIC ASSAULT RIFLES
AND HIGH-CAPACITY AMMUNITION MAGAZINES (more than ten rounds).</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Understand? Comprende? Verstehen sie?<BR><BR>
<DIV>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV>"Moscow Cares"</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.moscowcares.com/"
target=_blank>http://www.MoscowCares.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Tom Hansen</DIV>
<DIV>Moscow, Idaho</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR>On Dec 22, 2012, at 5:58 PM, "Gary Crabtree" <<A
href="mailto:jampot@roadrunner.com">jampot@roadrunner.com</A>>
wrote:<BR><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=3 face=Calibri>Since I have to suppose that I am numbered
amongst the "ilk," before I walk away I would just love to hear the
imagined remedy for the "concerns." Please tell me in no uncertain terms
just exactly what measures you imagine would solve the problem of
"<SPAN>semi-automatic weapons and/or high-capacity ammunition
magazines."</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3 face=Calibri><SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3 face=Calibri><SPAN>g</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma">
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title="mailto:scooterd408@hotmail.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:scooterd408@hotmail.com">Scott Dredge</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, December 22, 2012 5:24 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A
title="mailto:thansen@moscow.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com">thansen@moscow.com</A> ; <A
title="mailto:bear@moscow.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:bear@moscow.com">bear@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">viz</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] And just something to think
about......</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>Tom,<BR><BR>I'm guessing at some point, Wayne and others you
clump in with his ilk will simply just walk away and leave you hanging
with your 'concerns with <SPAN>semi-automatic weapons and/or
high-capacity ammunition magazines'. You can all agree (or not
agree) to disagree with each other which is tantamount to status
quo. Area Man already summed it up in one word:
'Impasse'.<BR><BR>-Scott<BR></SPAN><BR>
<DIV>
<DIV id=ecxSkyDrivePlaceholder></DIV>
<HR id=ecxstopSpelling>
From: <A href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com">thansen@moscow.com</A><BR>Date:
Sat, 22 Dec 2012 16:58:32 -0800<BR>To: <A
href="mailto:bear@moscow.com">bear@moscow.com</A><BR>CC: <A
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A><BR>Subject:
Re: [Vision2020] And just something to think about......<BR><BR>
<DIV>Mr. Price - </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Fascinating article, but . . .</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>What has it got to do with semi-automatic weapons and/or
high-capacity ammunition magazines?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I have absolutely no argument against hunting rifles and/or shotguns.
Heck! I own a 12-gauge shotgun (great home security) and a
single-shot .410/.22 over-under, for which I am still trying to locate a
retainer spring for the hand guard, that my grandfather used to hunt with
100+ years ago.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>This article simply doesn't address my concerns
with <SPAN>semi-automatic weapons and/or high-capacity ammunition
magazines.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Good read, though.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>
<DIV>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>"Moscow Cares"</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.moscowcares.com/"
target=_blank>http://www.MoscowCares.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Tom Hansen</DIV>
<DIV>Moscow, Idaho</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR>On Dec 22, 2012, at 4:38 PM, Wayne Price <<A
href="mailto:bear@moscow.com">bear@moscow.com</A>> wrote:<BR><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV>This was sent to me by someone that I hold in high regards and
often disagree with, but listen to and respect their opinions.
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif"
class=ecxApple-style-span>
<P style="COLOR: rgb(0,51,51); FONT-SIZE: small" align=center><A
style="COLOR: rgb(0,102,153)" href="http://davekopel.org/"
target=_blank><iilogo.jpg></A></P>
<H1
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(0,51,51); FONT-SIZE: xx-large; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">The
American Revolution against British Gun Control</H1>By David B. Kopel<A
title=""
href="http://www.davekopel.org/2A/LawRev/american-revolution-against-british-gun-control.html#_ftn1"
name=_ftnref1 target=_blank><SPAN
class=ecxMsoFootnoteReference>*</SPAN></A><BR><EM>Administrative and
Regulatory Law News </EM>(American Bar Association). Vol. 37, no.
4, Summer 2012. More by Kopel on the <A
href="http://www.davekopel.org/RKBA-Law-History.htm#Founding_Era"
target=_blank>right to arms in the Founding Era</A>.<BR>This Article
reviews the British gun control program that precipitated the American
Revolution: the 1774 import ban on firearms and gunpowder; the 1774-75
confiscations of firearms and gunpowder; and the use of violence to
effectuate the confiscations. It was these events that changed a
situation of political tension into a shooting war. Each of these
British abuses provides insights into the scope of the modern Second
Amendment.<BR>Furious at the December 1773 Boston Tea Party, Parliament
in 1774 passed the Coercive Acts. The particular provisions of the
Coercive Acts were offensive to Americans, but it was the possibility
that the British might deploy the army to enforce them that primed many
colonists for armed resistance. The Patriots of Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, resolved: “That in the event of Great Britain attempting
to force unjust laws upon us by the strength of arms, our cause we leave
to heaven and our rifles.” A South Carolina newspaper essay, reprinted
in Virginia, urged that any law that had to be enforced by the military
was necessarily illegitimate.<BR>The Royal Governor of Massachusetts,
General Thomas Gage, had forbidden town meetings from taking place more
than once a year. When he dispatched the Redcoats to break up an illegal
town meeting in Salem, 3000 armed Americans appeared in response, and
the British retreated. Gage’s aide John Andrews explained that everyone
in the area aged 16 years or older owned a gun and plenty of
gunpowder.<BR>Military rule would be difficult to impose on an armed
populace. Gage had only 2,000 troops in Boston. There were thousands of
armed men in Boston alone, and more in the surrounding area. One
response to the problem was to deprive the Americans of
gunpowder.<BR>Modern “smokeless” gunpowder is stable under most
conditions. The “black powder” of the 18th Century was far more
volatile. Accordingly, large quantities of black powder were often
stored in a town’s “powder house,” typically a reinforced brick
building. The powder house would hold merchants’ reserves, large
quantities stored by individuals, as well as powder for use by the local
militia. Although colonial laws generally required militiamen (and
sometimes all householders, too) to have their own firearm and a minimum
quantity of powder, not everyone could afford it. Consequently, the
government sometimes supplied “public arms” and powder to individual
militiamen. Policies varied on whether militiamen who had been given
public arms would keep them at home. Public arms would often be stored
in a special armory, which might also be the powder house.<BR>Before
dawn on September 1, 1774, 260 of Gage’s Redcoats sailed up the Mystic
River and seized hundreds of barrels of powder from the Charlestown
powder house.<BR>The “Powder Alarm,” as it became known, was a serious
provocation. By the end of the day, 20,000 militiamen had mobilized and
started marching towards Boston. In Connecticut and Western
Massachusetts, rumors quickly spread that the Powder Alarm had actually
involved fighting in the streets of Boston. More accurate reports
reached the militia companies before that militia reached Boston, and so
the war did not begin in September. The message, though, was
unmistakable: If the British used violence to seize arms or powder, the
Americans would treat that violent seizure as an act of war, and would
fight. And that is exactly what happened several months later, on April
19, 1775.<BR>Five days after the Powder Alarm, on September 6, the
militia of the towns of Worcester County assembled on the Worcester
Common. Backed by the formidable array, the Worcester Convention took
over the reins of government, and ordered the resignations of all
militia officers, who had received their commissions from the Royal
Governor. The officers promptly resigned and then received new
commissions from the Worcester Convention.<BR>That same day, the people
of Suffolk County (which includes Boston) assembled and adopted the
Suffolk Resolves. The 19-point Resolves complained about the Powder
Alarm, and then took control of the local militia away from the Royal
Governor (by replacing the Governor’s appointed officers with officers
elected by the militia) and resolved to engage in group practice with
arms at least weekly.<BR>The First Continental Congress, which had just
assembled in Philadelphia, unanimously endorsed the Suffolk Resolves and
urged all the other colonies to send supplies to help the
Bostonians.<BR>Governor Gage directed the Redcoats to begin general,
warrantless searches for arms and ammunition. According to
the <EM>Boston Gazette</EM>, of all General Gage’s offenses, “what
most irritated the People” was “seizing their Arms and
Ammunition.”<BR>When the Massachusetts Assembly convened, General Gage
declared it illegal, so the representatives reassembled as the
“Provincial Congress.” On October 26, 1774, the Massachusetts Provincial
Congress adopted a resolution condemning military rule, and criticizing
Gage for “unlawfully seizing and retaining large quantities of
ammunition in the arsenal at Boston.” The Provincial Congress urged all
militia companies to organize and elect their own officers. At least a
quarter of the militia (the famous Minute Men) were directed to “equip
and hold themselves in readiness to march at the shortest notice.” The
Provincial Congress further declared that everyone who did not already
have a gun should get one, and start practicing with it
diligently.<BR>In flagrant defiance of royal authority, the Provincial
Congress appointed a Committee of Safety and vested it with the power to
call forth the militia. The militia of Massachusetts was now the
instrument of what was becoming an independent government of
Massachusetts.<BR>Lord Dartmouth, the Royal Secretary of State for
America, sent Gage a letter on October 17, 1774, urging him to disarm
New England. Gage replied that he would like to do so, but it was
impossible without the use of force. After Gage’s letter was made public
by a reading in the British House of Commons, it was publicized in
America as proof of Britain’s malign intentions.<BR>Two days after Lord
Dartmouth dispatched his disarmament recommendation, King George III and
his ministers blocked importation of arms and ammunition to America.
Read literally, the order merely required a permit to export arms or
ammunition from Great Britain to America. In practice, no permits were
granted.<BR>Meanwhile, Benjamin Franklin was masterminding the
surreptitious import of arms and ammunition from the Netherlands,
France, and Spain.<BR>The patriotic Boston Committee of Correspondence
learned of the arms embargo and promptly dispatched Paul Revere to New
Hampshire, with the warning that two British ships were headed to Fort
William and Mary, near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to seize firearms,
cannons, and gunpowder. On December 14, 1774, 400 New Hampshire patriots
preemptively captured all the material at the fort. A New Hampshire
newspaper argued that the capture was prudent and proper, reminding
readers that the ancient Carthaginians had consented to “deliver up all
their Arms to the Romans” and were decimated by the Romans soon
after.<BR>In Parliament, a moderate minority favored conciliation with
America. Among the moderates was the Duke of Manchester, who warned that
America now had three million people, and most of them were trained to
use arms. He was certain they could produce a stronger army than Great
Britain.<BR>The Massachusetts Provincial Congress offered to purchase as
many arms and bayonets as could be delivered to the next session of the
Congress. Massachusetts also urged American gunsmiths “diligently to
apply themselves” to making guns for everyone who did not already have a
gun. A few weeks earlier, the Congress had resolved: “That it be
strongly recommended, to all the inhabitants of this colony, to be
diligently attentive to learning the use of arms . . . .”<BR>Derived
from political and legal philosophers such as John Locke, Hugo Grotius,
and Edward Coke, the ideology underlying all forms of American
resistance was explicitly premised on the right of self-defense of all
inalienable rights; from the self-defense foundation was constructed a
political theory in which the people were the masters and government the
servant, so that the people have the right to remove a disobedient
servant.<BR>The British government was not, in a purely formal sense,
attempting to abolish the Americans’ common law right of self-defense.
Yet in practice, that was precisely what the British were attempting.
First, by disarming the Americans, the British were attempting to make
the practical exercise of the right of personal self-defense much more
difficult. Second, and more fundamentally, the Americans made no
distinction between self-defense against a lone criminal or against a
criminal government. To the Americans, and to their British Whig
ancestors, the right of self-defense necessarily implied the right of
armed self-defense against tyranny.<BR>The troubles in New England
inflamed the other colonies. Patrick Henry’s great speech to the
Virginia legislature on March 23, 1775, argued that the British plainly
meant to subjugate America by force. Because every attempt by the
Americans at peaceful reconciliation had been rebuffed, the only
remaining alternatives for the Americans were to accept slavery or to
take up arms. If the Americans did not act soon, the British would soon
disarm them, and all hope would be lost. “The millions of people, armed
in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we
possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against
us,” he promised.<BR>The Convention formed a committee—including Patrick
Henry, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson—“to
prepare a plan for the embodying, arming, and disciplining such a number
of men as may be sufficient” to defend the commonwealth. The Convention
urged “that every Man be provided with a good Rifle” and “that every
Horseman be provided . . . with Pistols and Holsters, a Carbine, or
other Firelock.” When the Virginia militiamen assembled a few weeks
later, many wore canvas hunting shirts adorned with the motto “Liberty
or Death.”<BR>In South Carolina, patriots established a government,
headed by the “General Committee.” The Committee described the British
arms embargo as a plot to disarm the Americans in order to enslave them.
Thus, the Committee recommended that “all persons” should “immediately”
provide themselves with a large quantity of ammunition.<BR>Without
formal legal authorization, Americans began to form independent militia,
outside the traditional chain of command of the royal governors. In
Virginia, George Washington and George Mason organized the Fairfax
Independent Militia Company. The Fairfax militiamen pledged that “we
will, each of us, constantly keep by us” a firelock, six pounds of
gunpowder, and twenty pounds of lead. Other independent militia embodied
in Virginia along the same model. Independent militia also formed in
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maryland, and South Carolina,
choosing their own officers.<BR>John Adams praised the newly constituted
Massachusetts militia, “commanded through the province, not by men who
procured their commissions from a governor as a reward for making
themselves pimps to his tools.”<BR>The American War of Independence
began on April 19, 1775, when 700 Redcoats under the command of Major
John Pitcairn left Boston to seize American arms at Lexington and
Concord.<BR>The militia that assembled at the Lexington Green and the
Concord Bridge consisted of able-bodied men aged 16 to 60. They supplied
their own firearms, although a few poor men had to borrow a gun. Warned
by Paul Revere and Samuel Dawes of the British advance, the young women
of Lexington assembled cartridges late into the evening of April
18.<BR>At dawn, the British confronted about 200 militiamen at
Lexington. “Disperse you Rebels—Damn you, throw down your Arms and
disperse!” ordered Major Pitcairn. The Americans were quickly
routed.<BR>With a “huzzah” of victory, the Redcoats marched on to
Concord, where one of Gage’s spies had told him that the largest Patriot
reserve of gunpowder was stored. At Concord’s North Bridge, the town
militia met with some of the British force, and after a battle of two or
three minutes, drove off the British.<BR>Notwithstanding the setback at
the bridge, the Redcoats had sufficient force to search the town for
arms and ammunition. But the main powder stores at Concord had been
hauled to safety before the Redcoats arrived.<BR>When the British began
to withdraw back to Boston, things got much worse for them. Armed
Americans were swarming in from nearby towns. They would soon outnumber
the British 2:1. Although some of the Americans cohered in militia
units, a great many fought on their own, taking sniper positions
wherever opportunity presented itself. Only British reinforcements
dispatched from Boston saved the British expedition from
annihilation—and the fact that the Americans started running out of
ammunition and gun powder.<BR>One British officer reported: “These
fellows were generally good marksmen, and many of them used long guns
made for Duck-Shooting.” On a per-shot basis, the Americans inflicted
higher casualties than had the British regulars.<BR>That night, the
American militiamen began laying siege to Boston, where General Gage’s
standing army was located. At dawn, Boston had been the base from which
the King’s army could project force into New England. Now, it was
trapped in the city, surrounded by people in arms.<BR>Two days later in
Virginia, royal authorities confiscated 20 barrels of gunpowder from the
public magazine in Williamsburg and destroyed the public firearms there
by removing their firing mechanisms. In response to complaints,
manifested most visibly by the mustering of a large independent militia
led by Patrick Henry, Governor Dunmore delivered a legal note promising
to pay restitution.<BR>At Lexington and Concord, forcible disarmament
had not worked out for the British. So back in Boston, Gage set out to
disarm the Bostonians a different way.<BR>On April 23, 1775, Gage
offered the Bostonians the opportunity to leave town if they surrendered
their arms. The Boston Selectmen voted to accept the offer, and within
days, 2,674 guns were deposited, one gun for every two adult male
Bostonians.<BR>Gage thought that many Bostonians still had guns, and he
refused to allow the Bostonians to leave. Indeed, a large proportion of
the surrendered guns were “training arms”—large muskets with bayonets,
that would be difficult to hide. After several months, food shortages in
Boston convinced Gage to allow easier emigration from the
city.<BR>Gage’s disarmament program incited other Americans to take up
arms. Benjamin Franklin, returning to Philadelphia after an unsuccessful
diplomatic trip to London, “was highly pleased to find the Americans
arming and preparing for the worst events.”<BR>The government in London
dispatched more troops and three more generals to America: William Howe,
Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne. The generals arrived on May 25, 1775,
with orders from Lord Dartmouth to seize all arms in public armories, or
which had been “secretly collected together for the purpose of aiding
Rebellions.”<BR>The war underway, the Americans captured Fort
Ticonderoga in upstate New York. At the June 17 Battle of Bunker Hill,
the militia held its ground against the British regulars and inflicted
heavy casualties, until they ran out of gunpowder and were finally
driven back. (Had Gage not confiscated the gunpowder from the Charleston
Powder House the previous September, the Battle of Bunker Hill probably
would have resulted in an outright defeat of the British.)<BR>On June
19, Gage renewed his demand that the Bostonians surrender their arms,
and he declared that anyone found in possession of arms would be deemed
guilty of treason.<BR>Meanwhile, the Continental Congress had voted to
send ten companies of riflemen from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia
to aid the Massachusetts militia.<BR>On July 6, 1775, the Continental
Congress adopted the Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking Up
Arms, written by Thomas Jefferson and the great Pennsylvania lawyer John
Dickinson. Among the grievances were General Gage’s efforts to disarm
the people of Lexington, Concord, and Boston.<BR>Two days later, the
Continental Congress sent an open letter to the people of Great Britain
warning that “men trained to arms from their Infancy, and animated by
the Love of Liberty, will afford neither a cheap or easy
conquest.”<BR>The Swiss immigrant John Zubly, who was serving as a
Georgia delegate to the Continental Congress, wrote a pamphlet
entitled <EM>Great Britain’s Right to Tax . . . By a Swiss</EM>,
which was published in London and Philadelphia. He warned that “in a
strong sense of liberty, and the use of fire-arms almost from the
cradle, the Americans have vastly the advantage over men of their rank
almost every where else.” Indeed, children were “shouldering the
resemblance of a gun before they are well able to walk.” “The Americans
will fight like men, who have everything at stake,” and their motto was
“DEATH OR FREEDOM.” The town of Gorham, Massachusetts (now part of the
State of Maine), sent the British government a warning that even “many
of our Women have been used to handle the Cartridge and load the
Musquet.”<BR>It was feared that the Massachusetts gun confiscation was
the prototype for the rest of America. For example, a newspaper article
published in three colonies reported that when the new British generals
arrived, they would order everyone in America “to deliver up their arms
by a certain stipulated day.”<BR>The events of April 19 convinced many
more Americans to arm themselves and to embody independent militia. A
report from New York City observed that “the inhabitants there are
arming themselves . . . forming companies, and taking every method to
defend our rights. The like spirit prevails in the province of New
Jersey, where a large and well disciplined militia are now fit for
action.”<BR>In Virginia, Lord Dunmore observed: “Every County is now
Arming a Company of men whom they call an independent Company for the
avowed purpose of protecting their Committee, and to be employed against
Government if occasion require.” North Carolina’s Royal Governor Josiah
Martin issued a proclamation outlawing independent militia, but it had
little effect.<BR>A Virginia gentleman wrote a letter to a Scottish
friend explaining in America:<BR>We are all in arms, exercising and
training old and young to the use of the gun. No person goes abroad
without his sword, or gun, or pistols. . . . Every plain is full of
armed men, who all wear a hunting shirt, on the left breast of which are
sewed, in very legible letters, “<EM>Liberty or Death</EM>.”<BR>The
British escalated the war. Royal Admiral Samuel Graves ordered that all
seaports north of Boston be burned.<BR>When the British navy showed up
at what was then known as Falmouth, Massachusetts (today’s Portland,
Maine), the town attempted to negotiate. The townspeople gave up eight
muskets, which was hardly sufficient, and so Falmouth was destroyed by
naval bombardment.<BR>The next year, the 13 Colonies would adopt the
Declaration of Independence. The Declaration listed the tyrannical acts
of King George III, including his methods for carrying out gun control:
“He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and
destroyed the Lives of our people.”<BR>As the war went on, the British
always remembered that without gun control, they could never control
America. In 1777, with British victory seeming likely, Colonial
Undersecretary William Knox drafted a plan entitled “What Is Fit to Be
Done with America?” To ensure that there would be no future rebellions,
“[t]he Militia Laws should be repealed and none suffered to be
re-enacted, & the Arms of all the People should be taken away, . . .
nor should any Foundery or manufactuary of Arms, Gunpowder, or Warlike
Stores, be ever suffered in America, nor should any Gunpowder, Lead,
Arms or Ordnance be imported into it without Licence . . . .”<BR>To the
Americans of the Revolution and the Founding Era, the theory of some
late-20th Century courts that the Second Amendment is a “collective
right” and not an “individual right” might have seemed incomprehensible.
The Americans owned guns individually, in their homes. They owned guns
collectively, in their town armories and powder houses. They would not
allow the British to confiscate their individual arms, nor their
collective arms; and when the British tried to do both, the Revolution
began. The Americans used their individual arms and their collective
arms to fight against the confiscation of any arms. Americans fought to
provide themselves a government that would never perpetrate the abuses
that had provoked the Revolution.<BR>What are modern versions of such
abuses? The reaction against the 1774 import ban for firearms and
gunpowder (via a discretionary licensing law) indicates that import
restrictions are unconstitutional if their purpose is to make it more
difficult for Americans to possess guns. The federal Gun Control Act of
1968 prohibits the import of any firearm that is not deemed “sporting”
by federal regulators. That import ban seems difficult to justify based
on the historical record of 1774-76.<BR>Laws disarming people who have
proven themselves to be a particular threat to public safety are not
implicated by the 1774-76 experience. In contrast, laws that aim to
disarm the public at large are precisely what turned a political
argument into the American Revolution.<BR>The most important lesson for
today from the Revolution is about militaristic or violent search and
seizure in the name of disarmament. As Hurricane Katrina bore down on
Louisiana, police officers in St. Charles Parish confiscated firearms
from people who were attempting to flee. After the hurricane passed,
officers went house to house in New Orleans, breaking into homes and
confiscating firearms at gunpoint. The firearms seizures were flagrantly
illegal under existing state law. A federal district judge soon issued
an order against the confiscation, ordering the return of the seized
guns.<BR>When there is genuine evidence of potential danger—such as
evidence that guns are in the possession of a violent gang—then the
Fourth Amendment properly allows no-knock raids, flash-bang grenades,
and similar violent tactics to carry out a search. Conversely, if there
is no real evidence of danger—for example, if it is believed that a
person who has no record of violence owns guns but has not registered
them properly—then militaristically violent enforcement of a search
warrant should never be allowed. Gun
ownership <EM>simpliciter </EM>ought never to be a pretext for
government violence. The Americans in 1775 fought a war because the king
did not agree.<BR>
<DIV>
<HR>
<DIV id=ecxftn1>
<P class=ecxMsoFootnoteText><SPAN class=ecxMsoFootnoteReference><A
title=""
href="http://www.davekopel.org/2A/LawRev/american-revolution-against-british-gun-control.html#_ftnref1"
name=_ftn1 target=_blank>*</A> Research Director, Independence
Institute, and Adjunct Professor of Advanced Constitutional Law, Denver
University, Sturm College of Law. This is article is adapted
from <EM>How the</EM><EM>British Gun Control Program Precipitated
the American Revolution</EM>, 6 Charleston L. Rev. 283
(2012), <EM>available at</EM><A
href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=1967702"
target=_blank> http://ssrn.com/abstract=1967702</A></SPAN>.</P></DIV></DIV></SPAN></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
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