BallsBrunswick
Fair and Balanced
I remember reading somewhere that the Loyalists of Boston were saying the same thing before the first shots rang out at Concord?
Loyalists wanted to get assault weapons off the streets of Boston in 1775? ...okay? That reminds me of when the people of Los Angeles had to battle Mongolians with alien death beams in 1941.
The American Revolution against British Gun Control
By David Kopel
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.
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.
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 towns 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.
Before dawn on September 1, 1774, 260 of Gages Redcoats sailed up the Mystic River and seized hundreds of barrels of powder from the Charlestown powder house.
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.
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.
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 Governors appointed officers with officers elected by the militia) and resolved to engage in group practice with arms at least weekly.
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The American Revolution against British Gun Control
It's apparent that you sleep through your American History classes. That is if you ever attended an American school?
Oh cool fan fiction. I personally have enjoyed reading a couple of fan written scripts for various TV shows I like. It's interesting reading how people can reshape concepts in their own image. Personally, I find it a waste of time to invest yourself in something so meaningless but different strokes for different folks. And your link doesn't work.