June 29, 2008

A Shot Heard Around The World

It is appropriate that the U.S. Supreme Court last week – close to the upcoming Fourth Of July holiday – handed down its decision reaffirming the constitutional right of Americans to “bear arms” in defense of home and family.

Washington , D.C. has long suffered from a high rate of crime abetted by handguns. Over the years, District council members levied ever stricter regulations governing handguns – including an outright ban.

Shotguns and rifles were permitted if kept unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock.

Strictly regulated firearms had no discernible effect on District crime. Lawbreakers and murderers broke gun laws as casually as they did for robbery and murder.

Robert Levy – a lawyer who pushes libertarian rights -- filed a case against District handgun laws on behalf of Dick Heller, a private security guard with a gun in his home.

They asserted the District “may not attempt to solve its crime problems by violating the rights of law-abiding citizens.”

SUPREME COURT OPINIONS

The Supreme Court was divided on the issue 5-4. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority that also included Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

“We hold that the District’s ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment – as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense.

“The Second Amendment surely elevates above all other interests the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home.”

Justice Stephen G. Breyer – in dissent -- said the decision "threatens to throw into doubt the constitutionality of gun laws throughout the United States."

He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

POLITICAL OPINIONS

President Bush applauded the decision that “confirms what has always been clear in the Constitution.”

Sen. John McCain, presumed Republican presidential candidate, declared the decision a “landmark victory.”

Senator Barrack Obama, presumed Democrat presidential candidate, said:

“I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms. However, I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets.”

Thus, Obama staked out his view as a “mug wump” – his mug on one side of the fence and his wump on the other.

The Justices leaned heavily on the history and contemporary meanings of the Constitution’s second amendment:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The first ten Amendments – known as the Bill of Rights – were ratified December 15, 1791. There is no other section of the Constitution more revered.

MIDNIGHT RIDES

Paul Revere has been noted -- deservedly -- by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a super- patriot. However, reverence for a militia should be shared by several others.

Midnight Ride
courtesy The History Place

Dr. Joseph Warren of Suffolk County, Mass., drafted the stern “Suffolk Resolves” that inspired the colonies for freedom from “taxation without representation.”

He also dispatched Revere and William Dawes on the poetic “midnight ride” on April 19, 1775.

Their mission was to warn the militia at Concord – where a cache of rifles had been buried in a cornfield – that the British were about to go there in search of the weapons.

The riders took different routes but met on the Concord Road outside Lexington. There, they were joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott who was on his way home after visiting his sweetheart.

Shortly thereafter, the three Americans were stopped by a British patrol. Revere and Dawes were turned back. However, Dr. Prescott spurred his horse and leaped it over a stone wall. He rode on to Concord to alert the militia there.

INCIDENT AT LEXINGTON

A contingent of 700 red-coated British regulars – on their way to Concord -- arrived at Lexington early in the morning of April 20. It found 77 “Minutemen” there -- organized in accordance with Dr. Warren’s Suffolk Resolves.

The Minutemen were ordered by Capt. John Parker: “Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they want a war, let it begin here.”

The militia had almost been persuaded to retire when an unidentified shot rang out. In a spontaneous reflex, British soldiers fired at the Americans – killing eight and wounding 10.

Americans returned fire but fled. Three British soldiers were injured.

SHOT HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD’

The British proceeded to Concord. There they were ambushed at the town bridge by 150 Minutemen. The British soldiers fired back but a contingent rushed into town to pillage homes in search of hidden weapons.

That engagement – organized American Militia versus well-trained British regulars – has become known in American history as “The shot heard 'round the world.'”

As the British soldiers ransacked the village for weapons, American Militiamen rushed to the Concord-Boston Road.

On the Red Coats’ return trip, an estimated 4,000 American militiamen had taken places behind trees and fences along the route. They killed 73 British soldiers and wounded 200.

American losses were 49 killed, 39 wounded.

HERO’S DEATH

Shortly thereafter, the American Militia and British Regulars fought the Battle of Boston at Breed’s Hill (not Bunker’s Hill next door as often asserted.)

Dr. Warren took up a rifle in the front line, heeding the American battle order: “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!”

He was killed in action and buried quickly on the battlefield so the enemy could not desecrate his body. His grave was marked with a fieldstone on which was scratched a secret Free Mason symbol.

Several months after American victory that day, Dr. Warren’s body was exhumed for honorable burial by patriot Paul Revere and other Free Masons.

The British sent 2,250 regulars into the battle. Of these, 226 were killed and 2,024 wounded. American casualties were 140 killed and 271 wounded.

Both sides claimed victory – by the British for driving the rebels off Breed’s Hill – and by the Americans for driving the British back to their Boston barracks.

British General John Burgoyne -- defeated at the crucial battle of Saratoga three years later -- described the Battle of Breed’s Hill at the time as “the end of the British empire in America.”

Indeed, Gen. Charles Cornwallis surrendered the war to the United States after his defeat at Yorktown in October 1781.

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REMINDER – Don’t forget to display an American flag next Friday, the Fourth Of July – Independence Day -- marking adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1776.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist