I am dismayed by what I have been reading, hearing and seeing on the 2nd Amendment. People calling for curbs on the 2nd Amendment.

These people seem to forget the 2nd Amendment protects the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly. The Founding Fathers realized an armed citizenry is essential to keep a tyrannical government at bay.

If you want curbs on the 2nd Amendment, then prepare yourselves for curbs on freedoms that you are taking for granted now. Expect curbs on your freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly. Do not give up rights and freedoms in the hope of trying to eliminate violence. The bad guys do not play by the rules anyway. Why limit the rights of the good guys to protect themselves?

What most people fail to realize (because they are not taught it) is the match that ignited America’s War for Independence was not excessive taxes, or the lack of representation, or trade restrictions, or the lack of trial by jury (as important as these issues were). The match that ignited America’s War for Independence was attempted gun confiscation.

On April 19, 1775, some 800 British troops were dispatched to Concord, Mass., to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock and to seize a cache of weapons known to be stored at Concord. When Dr. Joseph Warren sent Paul Revere to warn Pastor Jonas Clark (in whose home Adams and Hancock were staying) the Crown’s troops were on their way to arrest the two men and seize the guns at Concord, he alerted his male congregants. About 60-70 men from the Church of Lexington stood armed on Lexington Green awaiting the Red Coats.

Upon spotting the citizen militia, a British officer demanded the men throw down their arms. They refused; and the British troops immediately opened fire. Eight of the Minutemen were instantly killed. The colonists returned fire in self-defense, and the shot was fired that was heard ’round the world. By the time the troops arrived at the Concord Bridge, just a few miles away, hundreds of colonists were waiting for them with muskets in hand, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Make no mistake about it: attempted gun confiscation ignited America’s War for Independence. If the federal government attempts to confiscate the guns of the American people, “There would be a revolution in this country!”

To quote George Washington, “If freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

Wake up from your slumber, people. All our rights and freedoms are in grave danger.

Geza John Vamos

Cleveland