Latest / Live to Shoot - Defending our 2nd Amendment Rights / British Records Prove Handguns Were Everywhere in 1775
Transcript
- 0:14Welcome to the Live Sheet podcast.
- 0:15My name is Jeff Do, and I've been a licensed farm dealer for the last 18 years.
- 0:19And this podcast we talk all about things related to Second Amendment.
- 0:21Anything else go in the World of Sports story or anything else I find interesting?
- 0:25So welcome, welcome, welcome.
- 0:27So today we're gonna.
- 0:28Dig into something a little bit more powerful.
- 0:30And it's honestly, it's the kind of thing that should come up every single time somebody tries to tell you.
- 0:35The second Amendment was only about muskets.
- 0:38And the why, why this story is so important was now with all the recent corporate cases and particularly the Bruin case the, uh, text and history of our founding has become more important and for a law to be, considered within the Second Amendments, it, there has to be history and context that it was something that was in practice or near practice back in our founding.
- 1:05And one of the things that's so cool is when you look, start digging into history and you find new things about history, uh, how important.
- 1:12The, uh, ability to defend oneself and the, the right to bear arms was during our founding, so this goes back to the Boston Siege of 1775.
- 1:23We have his hard historical evidence now, actual records from that time that prove handguns were commonly owned.
- 1:30Everyday Americans, and we're talking about not, some academic theory.
- 1:34We're talking about real numbers, real records from that siege of Boston in 1775.
- 1:39So let's set the stage in 1775.
- 1:42And we've already talked about some of this as if you go back and listen to our monthly stories leading up to our 250th birthday that we've been doing.
- 1:52But, after the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, the British were bottled up in Boston.
- 1:59General Cage and its troops were essentially under siege by the colonial militia.
- 2:04Now, inside the city, there were still thousands civilians, and some of'em, I mean, there were just regular residents of Bostons and tension were high.
- 2:12The British were nervous about armed population inside the city while they're being surrounded outside of it.
- 2:17An armed population, huh?
- 2:19Why is that so important?
- 2:20So what did they do?
- 2:22A, a k Also, you know, following the same liberal democratic playbook today, uh, general Ccra Cage, he struck a deal with the residents.
- 2:30He said, look, if you surrender your farms, we'll let you live, sit in the city peacefully.
- 2:35And that's what ha happened.
- 2:37The residents, Boston turned in their arms.
- 2:40Unfortunately.
- 2:41Now here's what gets interesting, because the British, being the British, they kept records, meticulous records in fact, and those records have survived.
- 2:49And what do they show?
- 2:50They what is that the residents of Boston's surrendered 1,778 firearms.
- 2:56Of those 634 were pistols.
- 2:59And they also turned in 38 blunder buses.
- 3:02So let's break it down of the roughly two, 2,450 total firearm.
- 3:06Surrendered.
- 3:06Over a quarter of'em, about 26% were pistols, handguns, personal sidearms.
- 3:12So what's all that mean?
- 3:13It means that in 1775, in one of the most important cities in the Colonial America handgun ownership was not rare.
- 3:20It was not unusual.
- 3:21It was common.
- 3:22Everyday people, shopkeepers, tradesmen, merchants, families, own pistols, not just long guns for hunting, not just muskets for militia duty.
- 3:29Pistols the kind of firearm you carry on your person for personal protection.
- 3:34Now, think about that for a minute.
- 3:36'cause every time the gun control crowd tries to redefine the Second Amendment, what do they say?
- 3:41They say it was about muskets.
- 3:42They say the founders never envisioned personal handguns being widely owned.
- 3:45They say the Second Amendment was only about organized, malicious service with military long arms.
- 3:50Well, here's the bottom line.
- 3:52The historical record says otherwise over 600 pistols in the single city in 1775, a year before the Declaration of Independence was even signed.
- 4:02So let me be straight.
- 4:03This isn't just historical curiosity.
- 4:06This matters right now because it's legal battles over the Second Amendment, especially after the Bruin decision hinge on history and tradition.
- 4:13The Supreme Court in New York City State Rifle and Pistol Association, b Bruin said that firearms regulations have to be consistent with the historical tradition of firearm regulation in America.
- 4:23That's the test now.
- 4:25So when a state tries to ban handguns or restrict ca concealed, carry or limit what kind of firearms you can own, the question comes, is there a historical tradition supporting that restriction?
- 4:35And what these Boston Records show is that there's a deep historical tradition of private handgun ownership in America.
- 4:43Going all the way back to our founding for the Constitution.
- 4:45Before the Bill of Rights was even written, American film Pistols exposed.
- 4:49C.
- 4:50C carry, concealed carry.
- 4:51They had them.
- 4:51It was normal.
- 4:52It was accepted.
- 4:53It was part of the fabric of life.
- 4:55So the next time someone tells you that the founders only intended the Second Amendment to cover muskets, you can point them to general Cage's own records.
- 5:02The British government documented themselves, 634 pistols surrendered by the civilians of Austin, 1775.
- 5:10Now, there's another angle here that I think it's important.
- 5:12Look at what happened in this situation.
- 5:14The British authorities told the people to surrender their arms, and they did.
- 5:18And you know what happened after that?
- 5:19The British didn't fully honor their deal.
- 5:21They made it difficult for people to actually leave.
- 5:23They slow walked process.
- 5:25They held people's property.
- 5:27Once the population was itar, the balance of power shifted entirely towards the government, and that's the core issue.
- 5:32That's the lesson of Boston 1775.
- 5:35That echoes all the way today.
- 5:37Disarmament is about control.
- 5:39It's always about control.
- 5:41The whole reason the founders put the second amendment in, in the Bill of Rights was because they lived through this.
- 5:46They saw what happened.
- 5:47When the government disarmed its people, they experienced it firsthand.
- 5:50Boston wasn't an abstract idea to'em.
- 5:53It was a memory.
- 5:54It was personal.
- 5:55And they made sure they wrote it down in plain English that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed arms, not muske, not long guns, arms, which include the pistols that over 600 families in Boston owned.
- 6:09This isn't just about history, it's about the ongoing fight to preserve your rights based on what Americans have always been an armed.
- 6:17Cary is not modern in a modern invention.
- 6:21It is a founding PRI principle and the data backs it up.
- 6:25So here's what I want you to take away from this.
- 6:28When you see the legal challenges to handgun bans, when you see cases working through the courts using the brewing framework, when you see states trying to restrict your right to carry pistols, remember Boston, remember 1775.
- 6:40Remember that historical records is on our side.
- 6:43It always has been.
- 6:45And if you're falling along with our road to two 50.
- 6:48And we've been marching through towards America's 250th birthday on July 4th, 22.
- 6:52Civic.
- 6:53This is exactly the kind of evidence that ties the revolution directly to the Second Amendment fights we're having today.
- 6:59The founders didn't just fight for independence.
- 7:02They fought for the right to be armed while doing it, and they carried pistols, who, if you found this valuable, subscribe, share it with others, give it five stars.
- 7:10Uh, it's the kind of history that wins arguments in court cases, and people need to hear it.
- 7:14So I appreciate it.
- 7:15I appreciate you listening.
- 7:17Have a great day.
- 7:18I'm Jeff Doell.
- 7:19This is Live to Shoot Defending the Second Amendment.
- 7:21Stay informed, stay armed, and know your history.
- 7:24Talk to you next week.
- 7:25Okay.