New York Patriot Refuses to Surrender His Rifle

"This is the last legal gun that you can have without registration in New York," Littlejohn said. "And yet Mayor Bloomberg is driven crazy by my flintlock gun - the one that won the American Revolution.

A police source says the war could end peacefully if Littlejohn applied for a permit with the NYPD handgun license division.

Littlejohn would rather fight. The Brooklynite says he's willing to sue for his rifle rights." [link]

I can't figure out if it is hilarious that these crackpots in New York are going after this man and his rifle, and that he could end it peacefully by registering with the "NYPD handgun licensing division". Or so outright infuriating that these people are so terrified of individual rights that they act this irrationally.

The Shot Heard Round the World

"Disperse you rebels; damn you, throw down your arms and disperse!" --Major John Pitcairn, British Marine

"Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." --Captain John Parker, Lexington Militia, April 19th 1775

"I'm not afraid to go, and I haven't a man that's afraid to go." --Captain Isaac Davis on his willingness to defend a town that was not his own.

"Fire, For God's sake fire!" --Major John Buttrick on seeing Captain Isaac Davis fall at the North Bridge

"..on the Return of the Troops they were attacked from all Quarters where any Cover was to be found, from whence it was practicable to annoy them, and they were so fatigued with their March that it was with Difficulty they could keep out their Flanking Partys to remove the Enemy to a Distance, so that they were at length a good deal pressed." --From General Thomas Gage's report on the battle

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
From Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride"


"What a glorious morning this is!" -- Samuel Adams, Comment to John Hancock at the Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775