Quote:
Originally Posted by Reiver
A quote from George Mason, American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787:
"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials."
He also stated:
“When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised…to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.”
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Very true.
What a lot of people don't know, but what is a matter of historical fact, is that on April 19, 1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord were fought for this exact reason: to disarm the colonists. A detachment of British regulars, 700 in all under the command of Lt. Col. Francis Smith, was sent from the Boston garrison for the purpose of finding the colonists' weapons cache(s) and confiscating or destroying them. The colonists had gotten advance word the day before and were prepared.
One has to ask oneself; what would have happened had the British succeeded, and that "shot heard round the world" was never fired?
Freedom is never free. The colonists knew that and were prepared to pay for that freedom in blood. The result of that payment was the greatest nation the world has ever known.
There is a hard lesson there.