Paul Revere

Paul Revere

Paul Revere (1734-1818) was a silversmith in colonial America who was very active in Boston-area revolutionary groups such as the Sons of Liberty. He is famous for riding from Boston to Lexington, Massachusetts with William Dawes on the night of April 18, 1775 ringing bells to warn the British that colonists would exercise their natural rights to both bear arms and use them in an effort secede from the United Kingdom in response to Big Government bullying and interfering with Colony's Rights. Coincidentally, this also served to warn the minutemen the British were coming. Revere was captured before he could reach Concord, but managed to escape. His midnight ride was immortalized by a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

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Paul Revere rode from Boston to Lexington to warn colonial leaders that British forces had set out to arrest them. He was met there by William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott, who had rode to Lexington via different routes. They then on their own, chose to ride on to Concord to, where a large store of arms and powder were hidden, to warn the residents there of the redcoats approach. They were captured by a British patrol while making their way to Concord. Their mission was to warn the colonist, not the British. Bells ringing or not there was no 2nd Amendment for Revere to protest to the British about at the time, since the Constitution had not been written. English law permitted the keeping of arms for hunting and self defense (Declaration of Rights (1689 amended version)) but with the language of "as allowed by law" embedded within, which indicated that that which Parliament giveth, Parliament can take away. The Declaration of Rights permitted the possession of arms for hunting and self defense, but did not allow the stock piling of weapons for private militias. This is what the British were marching from Boston to Concord to confiscate, not individual weapons. And maybe the bells.