Why did Americans revolt against Great Britain, at that time the world’s most powerful country?  What provoked Americans to start the Revolutionary War?

The issues first came to a climax in Boston.  Most of us learned about the American Revolution in high school.  Most of us have an overview of some of the events.  But school teachers do not have time to cover the details which make the history so much more interesting – details that will have you on the edge of your seat, anxious to find out what drove the people to act as they did, resulting in what happened at each step.

The history of America through the Revolution of 1775-1783, the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and of the passage of the Bill of Rights in 1791 is a nail-biter.  Stephen P. Halbrook’s book, “The Founders’ Second Amendment – Origins of the Right to Bear Arms”, is a story that is more interesting than any book of fiction, because it is a history of real events – of cliff-hangers that really led to the emergence of a whole new country, unlike any the world has ever seen, before, during, and since.

Problems between the mother country and colonists began in 1765 with Parliament’s passage of the Stamp Act.  

That was followed by British Redcoats occupying Boston in 1768, when the Crown-appointed Governor also dissolved the Massachusetts House of Representatives.  

The British Governor had three goals.  The American colonists were to be disarmed.  Massachusetts was to be governed by martial law.  Several men were to be arrested as traitors and sent to England to stand trial, particularly including two of America’s most renowned patriots, Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

Disarming the colonists was illegal, according to the English Bill of Rights of 1689.  Additionally, since 1645 Massachusetts law had required all inhabitants to have arms in their houses, for defense against criminals and invasion by Indians or the French.  Nonetheless, starting in 1769 disarmament was attempted.

The march of the British soldiers to Lexington and Concord in 1775 was a part of the ongoing effort to confiscate the colonists’ arms.  

Literally, the right to bear arms was the root cause of the start of what would come to be called the American Revolutionary War.  The book clearly describes and illustrates the issues generally and in detail, showing how the issues affected Americans throughout each of the thirteen colonies.

After the Revolution ended victoriously in 1783, Americans sought to define laws to preserve what they had won.  To do so, in 1787 they created the U.S. Constitution, and in 1791, they adopted the first ten Amendments – the Bill of Rights.

The debates from state to state and within each state centered primarily around wording.  But the right of people to bear arms – to own and use guns for hunting, against criminals, and as militia against invasion – was emphatically never in question.  What was necessary was to assure that the wording would always be and could only be interpreted as the Founders intended, as shown in the 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.”

Similarly, the rights of free speech, free assembly, and a free press also had to be clearly worded, so that the meaning could not be perverted.

The first ten amendments – the Bill of Rights – expresses the concerns and thinking of the nation’s Founders and their desire to assure freedom, “for ourselves and our posterity.”  Anything less would have been inadequate, and anything more would have been excessive.

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights make America unique among all the countries of the world to this day.

“The Founders’ Second Amendment”, by Stephen P. Halbrook:  if you want to learn the details about why the American Revolution occurred and why the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written, or you enjoy reading about the reasons behind why history happened as it did, this book will be one that will hold your interest from beginning to end, and beyond.

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