Gun rules I learned [FN1]: assume a gun is loaded & chambered; carry a gun pointed at the ground or the sky; shoot a gun to hit a target & shoot to kill if a target is a living thing. My home differs from that of my parents: I have no guns. In my parents home were > 10. 1/10

Even before magaGOP [FN2] was knocked off-balance by the Democratic Party’s change of its line-up, the far right wanted everyone to know they got guns. The people they oppose include those of us who study actual history, both distant- and near-past. 2/10

“Guns” & “liberty” should not be conjoined. Victory over the British? France, our ally, provided the U.S. w/heavy arms (i.e., cannon) & they had a navy. [FN3] A war of attrition, to draw out conflict was pursued. [FN4] England was heavily in debt w/long supply lines. 3/10

Colonists were far more familiar with the territory. [FN5] Both sides had guns. No quality unique to muskets in the hands of colonists won independence. History must be accurate, i.e., true. The Revolutionary War was not a fight for liberty for everyone. At its end? 4/10

People still were held as slaves. Women could not vote and could not own property or control their own money. [FN6] Indigenous peoples were killed. Guns were used to oppress. On 1/6/21, mobs got no farther than storming the Capitol, even w/their still Pres. 5/10

“Violence is the last resort of the incompetent.” as Isaac Asimov wrote. That does not make the deaths and injuries caused by such violence any less real. We don’t let bullies run things. And if, as things look, they lose yet again, I gotta say, their tantrums are getting a bit old. 6/10

Footnotes:
FN1. By “gun” I mean “firearm,” and that is “any weapon [ ] which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive; the frame or receiver of any such weapon.” 18 U.S.C. §921. “Guns” means plural, i.e., > 1. 7/10

Footnotes:
FN2. This iteration of the Republican Party is the result of a hostile takeover by the far right & has no legitimate claim to being called the “party of Lincoln.”
FN3. Ushistory.org “Factors Contributing to the American Victory.” 8/10

Footnotes:
FN4. “The Fabian strategy ... a war of attrition and continuous maneuvering, was reluctantly adopted by Washington to stave off a direct engagement with the full army forces of the British.” Revolutionary War Strategy, American Battlefield Trust. 9/10

Footnotes:
FN5. Id., note 3.
FN6. Allison Lange, Ph.D., “Women's Rights in the Early Republic,” National Women’s History Museum, Fall 2015. 10/10