Military-style gun confiscation hits a snag!

by Gary Evens

The efforts of officials to confiscate military-style firearms in Massachusetts ran into trouble recently when armed militia groups confronted a government raid to seize a stockpile of guns and ammunition and arrest leading anti-government activists rumored to be in a small town outside of Boston.

The government forces were initially met by a small number of militia members in Lexington. After their show of force, the militia leader ordered his men to stand down and allow the government’s troops to pass. They were in the process of dispersing when a shot rang out. No one is sure just who fired that shot, but in response government troops opened fire, killing eight and wounding several others before their officers could regain control of the situation. Government forces then proceeded west towards their original destination of Concord, Massachusetts.

At Concord, the government troops spread out through the community searching for banned goods and the individuals they had been instructed to arrest. One group headed toward William Barret’s farm where it was reported that a stockpile of guns and ammunition was being collected. Meanwhile, some prohibited items were found in the town and set on fire in a vacant lot. However, the fire soon spread to a nearby building and the resulting smoke led some militia leaders that had assembled their men in the area to believe the town was being deliberately burned down. They began advancing and confronted a group of government troops at a bridge on the north side of the town. A brisk exchange of gunfire resulted in about a dozen casualties and government forces retreating back towards the center of town.

At this point, the raid’s leaders decided it would be best to return to Boston rather than continuing on their mission. During the subsequent retreat, an estimated seventy troops were killed and about two hundred were wounded as thousands of militiamen from the area rushed to confront the retreating government forces.

Following the abortive raid, an investigation was launched into why it had failed. The raid had been planned in the utmost secrecy, with the troops and leaders learning of their mission only at the last possible moment. Still word leaked out, probably by someone that overheard the planning of the raid at the governor’s mansion. Knowledge of the potential raid quickly spread to militia leaders but the exact target of the raid was not known. The individual that leaked the information about the raid was never identified.

This most recent raid was part of a trend that started last year when a law was passed banning the importation of military-style firearms and ammunition into the state. Subsequently, government forces began conducting warrantless searches for guns and ammunition. A successful raid was conducted on September 1, when a stockpile of ammunition was seized from a site about six miles northwest of Boston. A similar effort to seize ammunition stockpiles occurred in Williamsburg, Virginia. Rumors quickly spread that the government was deliberately trying to deny citizens the ability to acquire ammunition. Hoarding and shortages soon followed.

These initial successful efforts led the Massachusetts and Virginia governors to order further raids. A second attempt to seize illegal guns and ammunition was aimed at the Salem community. This one failed when local citizens learned of the raid and took efforts to block roads and bridges, preventing government officials from reaching the town.

Gun control efforts in Massachusetts increased in response to protests in Boston resulting from raising taxes and harsh treatment by government officials. This latest series of protests turned violent a few years ago when government officials opened fire on a crowd, killing five, including one black man. A couple of years later another group of protesters seized control of an embargoed shipment of goods pending payment of import taxes. Although the protest was non-violent, several thousand dollars in goods were destroyed. In an effort to restore order, Massachusetts’ governor imposed martial law in the area immediately around Boston and ordered the confiscation of firearms and ammunition.

In response to the governor’s action, Massachusetts gun rights leaders pointed to a resolution that was voted on almost ten years ago that stated every citizen was entitled to possess a firearm for their own personal protection and to defend the state from outside attack. They said that the government’s latest efforts fly in the face of long-standing tradition that people have the right to defend themselves.

[Author’s Note: You probably have not heard about these incidents in any of the major news outlets. However, they all happened, just not recently. Instead they occurred in the late eighteenth century and involved the events surrounding the Boston Massacre (1770), the Boston Tea Party (1773), and the Battles of Lexington and Concord (1775). Even then, gun control was used in an attempt to control the rights of citizens to protest government actions.]