Our Natural Response to Threats

By Tom Rhodes, 7/25/2012

Since before our country was founded, Americans have been a self reliant lot, distrusting of the government, with a propensity for hoarding arms and ammo to protect ourselves from any aggressors, including our government. When are rights are threatened we routinely purchase arms and ammo. Record arms and ammo sales in Denver after the tragic mass murder in a “gun free zone”, is the norm for this country and has been since before we were a country.

Paul Revere’s famous ride was one of several “Powder Alarms” that occurred in the British colonies in America. Before the revolutionary war started there were several Powder Alarms in the Colonies. In Cambridge Massachusetts the colonists removed their gunpowder from the storehouse, in response to the army, from the outlying area armed colonists surged into the area to protect the stores from the government. The result was ammo and arms was removed and dispersed among the people before the government could get there.

In Salem, Massachusetts, colonists thwarted the government from taking their cannons by raising a drawbridge and denying them passage. Only after the cannons and powder were removed and hidden did the people allow the government troops to cross the bridge. The government troops found the stores empty and returned to Boston.

The local militias drilled through the winter preparing for the inevitable moment when the conflict would start. In New England, towns moved and hid their powder and arms. Knowing that it was only a matter of time before the Government marched into Concord to take the stores of arms and ammo which was collected there, the people preemptively hid most of it. When it was discovered that General Gage was plotting to confiscate the ammo and powder of the people, Dr. Joseph Warren sent Paul Revere on his midnight ride to alarm the people.

Contrary to what the ruling elite and liberal press would have you believe, it is the long standing traditional response of the people in the USA when threatened, to prepare for self defense, by hoarding arms and ammo privately, hidden from the prying eyes of government. This is a uniquely American tradition. When we are reminded that we have been lacking in preparation, like the tragic mass murder in Colorado, we renew our efforts. When we start to fear the government in restricting our ability to access stores of arms and ammo, we retrieve them and hoard them privately outside of government control. Just as we did centuries ago, the people of the USA, send out the word whenever it is believed the government is planning to restrict our access to arms and ammo. Then it was the “crier” yelling the warning to all, today it is the blogger.

Denver’s massive increase in arms and ammo sales is normal and predictable for our country. The massive increase in arms and ammo sales when it became evident Obama would win the election was predictable and normal for the USA. His record and words on private ownership of arms, and actions and laws he promoted, made it clear that once again, the people have need to hide and hoard arms and ammo from the government.

As James Madison said in the Federalist #46"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed ― unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." In that same paper he also admonished the newly formed government writing, “Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion, that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession, than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors. Let us rather no longer insult them with the supposition that they can ever reduce themselves to the necessity of making the experiment, by a blind and tame submission to the long train of insidious measures which must precede and produce it.”

The people of the USA will not be unarmed, and firmly believe that they should not trust a government that doesn’t trust them. Why the press is “shocked” at the people buying guns in record numbers in the Denver area as a reaction to last week’s mass murder shows a distinct lack of understanding of US history, and distrust of the American people. This reaction is distinctly American, and is also a well reasoned reaction.

The Aurora theater banned effective self-defense, obviously not allowing law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms didn’t work well for those who were killed and injured. Just as obvious was the Ocala Florida event a week earlier where a 71 year old man stopped violent armed criminals in an internet café. The tragic event in Aurora and the event in Ocala are reminders to all Americans that they need to be prepared to defend themselves from societies predators, a stark reminder that the police cannot be everywhere all the time. The reason we have the second amendment, and concealed carry laws is to protect the people’s pre-existing, God given right to effectively defend themselves and their families.

You can expect that regardless of signs posted, normally law abiding citizens will no longer leave their arms at home or in their car. It is unfortunate that we have to be reminded again. In Aurora just like the Luby’s Cafeteria massacre, not being prepared to defend yourself, following irrational government regulations on where you can keep and bear arms, leaving your gun in your car while eat or watch a movie is not effective self protection. After her parents were murdered before her eyes, Suzanna Gratia Hupp expressed regret for abiding by the law and leaving her firearm in her car, rather than keeping it on her person. See here testimony before congress HERE.

In the 3 days after the Aurora massacre there were nearly 3000 requests for back ground checks to purchase firearms in Colorado. This is the exact and proper response from Americans in America. Our traditions, our history, the writings of our founding fathers, all reflect this as a normal and natural response for Americans who as a people prefer the self reliance required of being free, to the obedience and servitude of being kept. Traditionally arming ourselves is the way Americans react when their rights are threatened, it should be no surprise, and should be soundly celebrated.