Patrot's Day celebrates 'The Shot Heard 'Round the World'

How did you celebrate "Patriot's Day"? Jules Crittenden 'splains it for those ignorant of history who never heard of "the shot heard 'round the world."

Speaking of tectonic templates Massachusetts has provided for the nation, happy Patriots Day. Today, we mark the day in 1775 when Americans took up arms against their king, and bled, at the crack of terrible dawn.

My generation could recite the famous poem that begins "By the rude bridge that arched the flood..." but since they stopped teaching "dead white men's history" in the schools, the current generation most likely has not heard of the shot heard 'round the world. If you'd like a refresher course on the events of that day, Jules has the historical facts.

On Monday, Massad Ayoob made a prediction that was so easy to make it's certainly not surprising that it came to pass that same day.

Today the Second Amendment March is scheduled to take place in Washington, DC. I expect it to go peacefully, and therefore be largely ignored by the anti-gun elements of the mainstream media. It would not surprise me at all if the turnout dwarfed that of the Million Man March of anti-gunners a few years ago, whose attendance was a miniscule fraction of their eponymous name/number.

This immediate past weekend saw our friends in the Appleseed Project hold their excellent rifle clinics/history lectures all around the country, in celebration of the anniversary of the events at Concord and Lexington that sparked the American Revolution and the birth of this nation. The date for the peaceful march in Washington was chosen for the same reason. Of course, much of the mainstream media will choose to mention instead that it coincides with such anniversaries as the Branch Davidian debacle in Waco and the terrorist McVeigh’s bombing in Oklahoma City.

Sure nuff, the knee jerks and jerk Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reports this morning:

They came in camouflage and ammunition vests, carrying AK-47s slung over their shoulders and pistols in their hip holsters. They were in Northern Virginia, on the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, to stand on federal land and to voice violent thoughts.

In the nation's capital, where possession of guns is strictly regulated, they came carrying only signs and handbills, which one man had thrust into an empty holster.

The protest by hundreds of gun-rights advocates, billed as a national march in support of the Second Amendment, drew small but fervent groups to the Washington area. As many as 2,000 people gathered in the shadow of the Washington Monument, and about 50 at Gravelly Point and Fort Hunt parks in Virginia.

Not only did Milbank make the Oklahoma City bombing connection and tar the peaceful protesters with "violent thoughts" he also ridiculed their numbers as "hundreds." Whatcha bet Milbank saw "millions" on the day the anti-gunners gathered at the same spot?

Tam as usual gives a short, succinct roundup of the day's events from her porch view.

So, there were some Second Amendment marches and protests around the country over the weekend, including here in Indianapolis, culminating in Monday's rallies, both armed and unarmed, in Washington D.C.

No shots fired. No swarms of inbred yahoos rising from the hollers and bayous of Red State Amerikkka to put civilization to fire and the sword. No cyborg invasions.

Reactions from the soft, toothless, pro-disarmament Lefties on the intertubes ranged from pants-filling shrillness to smug and self-congratulatory Freudian allusions.

Speaking of "pants-filling shrillness," Milbank voices his own alarmed view of the pro-gun movement, reporting on recent successes.

The rallies come at a time when the trend appears to be toward normalizing the carrying of firearms in public. Even before the U.S. Supreme Court's 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller recognized an individual's constitutional right to possess firearms, an increasing number of states had allowed citizens to carry guns openly or conceal them on their person.

Last year, 24 states loosened restrictions in firearms laws, and Iowa and Arizona passed laws this year easing restrictions on gun possession. Starbucks recently announced that it would heed applicable federal state and local laws on gun possession, opening the door to allowing people to order a mochaccino with a Glock on their hip.

Ayoob also noted the growing movement toward exercising Second Amendment rights.

Last week, the Governor of Arizona signed the legislation that will make that state the third in the nation that allows law-abiding adult citizens to carry loaded, concealed handguns in public without a permit. The law goes into effect this summer, I’m told. (LINK HERE). Vermont has had that system for as long as any living human can remember, and has always had one of the lowest rates of violent crime of any state in the nation – many years, THE lowest. Bad judgment shootings by law-abiding carriers are so infrequent as to be off the radar screen.

A few years ago, Alaska followed with what might be an even better system. I say that because Vermont, never having needed a permit system, has none in place, so the Vermont citizen can get no indigenous permit with which to reciprocate when he or she travels to states that recognize other state’s resident permits. Alaska kept its permit system in place, to allow for its citizens to have reciprocity elsewhere. This is the model Arizona is following.

Milbank couldn't resist putting in a plug for the anti-gunners trying to resist the growing tide, but even his boosterism is pitiful as he reports the numbers at two rallies as "about 30."

Gun-control groups have pushed back. This weekend, gun-control advocates coordinated protests at Starbucks in Blacksburg, Va., and Denver to coincide with anniversaries of the Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings. Abby Spangler, founder of Virginia-based Protest Easy Guns, said about 30 people attended each demonstration.

Since Florida led the way some 20+ years ago with a "shall issue" concealed carry law for its citizens, the movement has spread across the nation. Today 40 of the union's 50 states have "shall issue" laws or even better, no restrictions at all like Vermont, Alaska and now Arizona.

I'm proud to say North Carolina is among those "shall issue" states and I'm also proud to say I'm doing my part to help our state's residents become legally armed with monthly concealed carry classes held at the gun shop where I work.