That was the signal for Paul Revere to ride through town, alerting people that the British were coming. One lamp in the church steeple meant they were coming over land and two meant they were coming by ships on the sea.
The reason Paul Revere raced through town screaming that the british were coming was so the local militias could gather their weapons and prepare for war.
Before the revolution America was called the New World. It was a colonial outpost for England, but it was getting a little too big for it’s britches as far as the monarchy was concerned. Whatever the king or queen said was now their law. If the monarch said the colonists couldn’t have guns then that was the law.
It’s the reason the second amendment to the constitution was created, so this newly born democratic republic could defend itself against tyranny from foreign governments. Because there was no American army the newly formed government depended on civilian gun owners for protection.
There was no standing army. It’s the reason the first couple of words of the 2nd amendment were, “A well-regulated militia”. It’s how wars used to be fought will well-regulated militias. No one wanted everyone to just have whatever gun they wanted. Common sense gun laws were baked into the bill of rights.
I didn’t want to write this blog post, but a friend on Facebook was heart-broken by the fact that no one seems to be doing anything to reduce the number of children massacred by commercially available weapons of war.
The latest mass murder was done by a fourteen year old boy. He killed two fourteen year old kids and two adults in a school using an AR15 that was a Christmas present from his father.
The gun was given to the fourteen year old boy after the FBI investigated him and his family because he made dangerous threats on social media.
The FBI couldn’t do anything more because dangerous threats are protected by the first amendment.
Seriously.
The fourteen year old boy’s threats were so serious that his mother warned the school the day it happened, yet his father gave him his Christmas present.
Happy Birthday, Jesus!
The Bill of Rights: the first ten amendments to the constitution, are a direct reaction to this newly minted country’s experience with a monarchy. They exist to limit the power of the democratically elected government, from the president down to the local constable.
Those freedoms are not unlimited. The first amendment doesn’t allow you to create a situation in which someone might get hurt by the common example of shouting !!!FIRE!!! inside a crowded theater. You are NOT free to do that!
But that’s exactly what’s happening every hour on cable news. Pundits are screaming !!!FIRE!!! to anyone who will listen. They tell you that libtards are coming for your slingshots and deer rifles if you vote them into office. That the school nurse will perform sex change surgery on your kid without your permission. That little girls will be forced to poop in litter boxes inside the boy’s bathroom. That babies will be murdered after they’re born.
If the second amendment were exercised exactly as our brilliant, though problematic, founding fathers had intended, there would be no weapons of war available at the local Walmart. That shit would be well-regulated.
What makes our collective misunderstanding of the second amendment so damn dangerous is the abuses of the first amendment by the oligarcs who enjoy seeing us fight each other, because if we’re fighting each other we aren’t asking them for better pay, or free healthcare or affordable housing.
Put two bugs in a jar. Let’s say a praying mantis and a June bug. They’ll ignore each other. Their goals in life are the same: survival, but they go about it in different ways, which don’t involve fighting each other.
If you want to see a praying mantis and a June bug fight each other, you’ve gotta shake the jar. And keep shaking it or they’ll quit fighting.
Who would win the fight? The person shaking the jar.
What’s the solution to gun violence? Will it ever go away in America?
We are too easily divided by the thing that, initially, made this country great: diversity.
You will never convince me that America is a Christian nation because I see too many blood thirsty Christians clinging to their unfettered right to own an AR15 as if God gave it to them in a celebration of his only begotten son’s birthday.
What baffles me is why churches aren’t preaching against gun violence. Jesus was the prince of peace, who said things like, if someone strikes your left cheek offer them your right. He said, if someone steals your coat give them your shirt.
As a person who has unshackled himself from the modern American Christian church, I will say with no irony, if everyone had the balls to act like Jesus, there would be very little gun violence in this country.
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