The British attempt to disarm the American colonists triggered the first shots of the Revolutionary War, proving that the right to bear arms was worth fighting for from the very beginning.
Spoiler alert: It went VERY badly for the British! This post includes instances of how past national and present state governments are trying to disarm you.
250 years to the day of “The shot heard round the world”
The phrase is in a poem written by Ralph Waldo Emerson that was intended to be the lyrics to a song titled “the Concord Hymn”. It was sung at the July 4, 1837 dedication to an obelisk monument in Concord, Massachusetts commemorating the battles of Lexington and Concord. The first stanza that is also inscribed on the monument:
BY THE RUDE BRIDGE THAT
ARCHED THE FLOOD,
THEIR FLAG TO APRIL’S
BREEZE UNFURLED,
HERE ONCE THE EMBATTLED
FARMERS STOOD,
AND FIRED THE SHOT HEARD
ROUND THE WORLD.
The idea of “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” was already in English law for 86 years
America was 13 colonies populated by British subjects who had a “Bill of Rights” officially called “An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown” which was passed in 1689. It contains things like freedom from excessive bail or harsh, cruel, and unusual punishments. Freedom to petition the king. Freedom of speech and from excessive taxes. And the right to bear arms for self-defense.
By David Wolosik
