Wednesday, January 2, 2013

History Repeats Itself

Unless you've been under a rock for the last 3 weeks, you've heard about the sudden increase in pressure by congress for further gun control efforts, and the potential reinstatement of an even stronger weapons ban than the 1984 legislation.

And you've undoubtedly heard about the resulting massive rush to buy guns and ammo, of every make and model, but especially the "Assault Rifle" types.

Just to remind our good readers, this has happened before in American history, with famous results...

KNOW YOUR HISTORY:
After the Boston Tea Party and several other acts against the British Empire, the Parliament went to more radical measures in order to contain the series of attacks. With the burning of the Gaspée and the Boston Tea Party, many British officials felt the sense that insurrection would continue to grow if left unchecked. At the time, it was not illegal for the colonists to stockpile supplies like gunpowder, and it wasn’t also an actual sign of a militia coming to arms.
Precaution

Yet, a concerned Thomas Gage planned to prevent and cripple the attempts of the American colonists by secretly seeking out and removing military supplies from storehouses in the colonies, especially in Boston due to the fresh occurrence of the Boston Tea Party. Gage tried to acquire information from William Brattle, an actual head of the provincial militia. William Brattle in response gave a letter to Gage indicating that the powder at the province’s storehouse was the only place that contained a supply of gunpowder out of all the towns in Boston. That was when Gage decided to claim the remaining supply.

On August 31, David Phips was appointed by Thomas Gage was given the order to have the provincial powder removed. Brattle had initially handed the key of the storehouse over to Phips. On September 1, 1774, a troop of 260 regulars from the 4th regimen rowed along the Mystic River in order to reach the Powder House, the storehouse that contained the gunpowder stocks. Phips had given the key to the commander of the battalion, George Maddison, in order to unlock the door to the storehouse and to remove the gunpowder from the place.

Rumors spread across the colonies about the secret event. Many locals knew of the acts of the British forces to remove the gunpowder stores even though an apparent military action was not planned to begin with. And to add to the matter, some rumors began spreading about the death of at least six people during the course of the storehouse raids of the British forces.  The widespread fear had reached and shocked a huge number of colonists from around the states as far as Connecticut. The colonists feared that an impending war was about to begin, and that the British armies were doing what they could to decrease their efforts. This “Powder Alarm,” even with the exaggeration of the rumors that had spread, was actually an important factor that helped inspire the American colonists to start the American Revolution.
http://totallyhistory.com/powder-alarm/


TODAY:

A sports illustrated writer, Bob Owens, mentions of his most recent observations at local gun stores:
"It wasn’t just the AR-15s, the AK-pattern rifles, the M1As, and the FALs that were sold out. It really hit me when I realized that the World War-era M1 Garands , M1 carbines, and Enfield .303s were gone, along with every last shell. Ubiquitous Mosin-Nagants—of which every gun store always seems to have 10-20—were gone. So was their ammo. Only a dust free space marked their passing. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Every weapon of military utility designed within the past 100+ years was gone. This isn’t a society stocking up on certain guns because they fear they may be banned. This is a society preparing for war."

http://www.bob-owens.com/2012/12/something-funny-happened-on-the-way-to-the-tyranny/

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