Watertown cops (courtesy slate.com)

“National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed by elements of a para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw,” dcgazette.com reports. “Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group’s organizers as ‘criminals,’ issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order. The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed widespread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons.” And that’s how the Revolutionary War began, apparently. [h/t WRW]

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112 COMMENTS

  1. Is it just me or does it look like those guys are wearing Marpat? (I know its not close enough to see if its REAL or not but hmm)

    Dat baity headline 🙂

  2. OK, I confess: You had me ‘going’ for a moment, there. I should’ve recognized ‘Thomas Gage’ right off.

    Unfortunately, this is something that I believe CAN happen here, and very well may.

    • And there will always be enough uniformed slopeheads who believe they are being good little doobies, ferreting out all the bad boogeymen that their monkey-trainer handlers told them had to go.

      No brains, no sense of history, and no conscience (other than what their globalist anti-Constitution puppet-masters tell them they should have). Under the illusion of authority, they will gladly give pain, and destroy lives and property, if only for a chance to prove their worthiness. That’s about as pathetic as it gets.

      • As long as they make it home safe at the end of the day, to take their financial rewards back to “feed their families”. The value of liberty will be weighed by the dollars in a camo-suited thugs pocket.

      • Yep, its all good so long as they it make home to spank that bad little monkey one more time. That’s all that matters. Right house, wrong house, shot a dog, blow up a flash-bang in a baby’s face, kick the sh!t out of someone’s grandmother….all in a days work. Just gotta get home to grease that little monkey up.

        By the way the guy in front is like 4′ 9″. The trash can that is concealing him is just medium sized.

        When it really does hit the fan, we’re all screwed.

    • Not me. I don’t think there are 72 people in Mass who would fight for their gun rights.

      • There most certainly are more than 72 in MA who would fight for our gun rights. Probably tens of thousands, really. We’re very outnumbered, voting-wise, by the vocal, radical left, but that doesn’t mean we’re not here.

        • Perhaps specific 2A supporters are outnumbered by Democrats, and perhaps Republicans as a whole are outnumbered by Democrats in Massachusetts, too. However, that does not destine you to lose, nor does it provide a valid excuse for your losses. It really comes down to motivation, organization and discipline.

          For example, in 2010, Devil, er, Deval Patrick was re-elected governor with 1.112 million votes, compared to the GOP candidate’s 965K votes. Barely more than another 3.5% of the vote and the GOP would have won. Can’t persuade those die hard liberals to vote GOP to overcome the gap, you say? Don’t worry, you don’t have to. You can win with GOP votes alone.

          The proof? Look to just two years later and you’ll see that Romney earned 1.118 million votes in Massachusetts. If those 1.118 Republucans had turned out in the off year 2010 governor’s, Patrick would have lost. Even in 2008, horrible campaigner McCain earned 1.108 million votes. That’s but a painfully close 4,000 fewer votes than it would have taken to beat Patrick two years later.

          I know, I know, there’s a difference between off year and presidential year elections. I say: exactly! The difference is motivation. What it takes to overcome obstacles is organization and discipline to get people off of their butts and turn out to vote. I’m not going to go one by one for each state rep. and senate seat and run all the numbers in exacting detail. Suffice it to say that reedom is right there in front of you and the numbers prove, just as they do in CT, that you do have the aggregate support. You just need to get them to the polls every time.

        • There were 15,000 colonist in the field by noon on April 19th 1775. It was only the limited effectiveness of the muskets that precluded a masacre of COL Smith’s column. Come to an Appleseed and hear the whole story!

        • OK, where were you guys when martial law was declared and the cops were kicking in doors after the Boston Marathon bombing last year?

        • @ Beast: I voice concern over the their tactics, since in a relatively small town and extensive lock down in effect, it still took them that long to locate the little bomber.

          But your analogy is also incorrect, since the scenario above referred to the State going after an initial “illegal cache of weapons”, not two brothers who bombed a marathon, killing and injuring scores of civilians.

  4. I was about to say oh s*it it has begun!!! (in my Shao Kahn voice)….I need to hurry up and get more gear!

  6. Sadly that reads just like it probably would today..Sometimes the realizations that come over me regarding how far things have come. Specifically against our Constitution. How everything from the NSA spying on our calls, to the continued assault on Free Speech and the 2nd Amendment seems to have been all active, proceeding and unchecked by anyone still makes my jaw drop. Our government eavesdropped on journalist who covered it. What more does it need to do to make the swallowers in the media spit it out?

    It boggles the mind.

  7. The 1200 dollar fast helmets and other gear is slightly better than what old george sent over here…. but the idea is just the same. It is a matter of when i fear, not if. Take a good look at Pelosi chasing another equal ranked house member out the door of the house chamber .. same idea, right?

  10. What in the world did I just read? Is this some sort of imaginary “revolution II will start this way” sort of thing?

    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gage

      Thomas Gage (1719 or 1720[1] – 2 April 1787) was a British general, best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as military commander in the early days of the American Revolution.

      […]

      His attempts to seize military stores of Patriot militias in April 1775 sparked the Battles of Lexington and Concord, beginning the American War of Independence.

      • I have to say, I take exception to the term “service” just about any time the government uses it.

        It’s about like bubba saying he’s going to “service” you when you become his new cell mate.

        • “It’s about like bubba saying he’s going to “service” you when you become his new cell mate.”

          I think Bubba will insist you service _him_, not he service you…

  11. I heard some gunshots in my neighbourhood about an hour ago, 5.56’s followed by 9mm.

    Then I read that headline.

    Suffice to say, I almost crapped. Then I realised that I’m not even in America.

    Whew.

  12. What’s the big idea of providing a platform for this bullshit? Isn’t there a plenitude of real, anti-2d Amendment news?

  13. Mr. Farago, shame on you. This is way over the top. You know some people are going to believe this article. Why would you post this with no explanation? We certainly don’t need to create some chicken shit, I mean chicken little, scenarios that aren’t true to spook the public.

    • I’ve got to agree with you. There’s a reason why fake news stories have disclaimers on tv now, because in the 1930s the world went to war for a short time against a Martian invasion.

    • If you’re gonna be dumb, you’d better get tough.

      Maybe you just need a better understanding of American history. You may have picked up the point a little quicker. It doesn’t need to be dumbed down for all of us.

    • It even says ‘And that’s how the Revolutionary War began, apparently’ at the end of the article. Don’t get pissed for your own lack of reading comprehension.

    • Damn, guys, I picked it up right from the start, before I even got to “Governor Gage”. I guess there is a greater deficiency of American history knowledge out there than I thought.

      • You robably read it after the title was changed. The original title of RF’s article read, “Seventy-Two Killed Resisting Gun Confiscation In Boston.” It was changed very shortly after, I am certain, due to the alarm it caused readers who opened their email and saw that subject line. Like I did.

        I don’t rely on MSM for news anymore. I get my news from alternative sources, one of them is TTAG. Which is why I appreciate the change in the headline.

        @RF… I don’t think I am alone in using TTAG as a news source, albeit a niche news source. I would appreciate some sensitivity, maybe even some hypersensitivity, to that fact. If it were just a blog, it would be something different, but TTAG is now more than just the blog it began as. The success you have had is a monument to your adherence to the TRUTH. Perpetuating such success requires maintaining the fragile trust of your subscribers. Emphasis on “fragile.” (Just look at the comments on your recent AJ post to see what happens when trust is not maintained by a news outlet)

        I still trust TTAG, but I would appreciate it if we could avoid the “Gotcha” posts in the future. We Need TTAG, particularly the Truth part.

        • No, actually I saw the original headline in my mailbox and guessed what it was before I accessed the article; didn’t even notice the headline then, but the first couple of sentences confirmed my guess.

        • Yup.

          I’ve said several variations of this as well. In some ways I feel that TTAG is a victim of their own success. They celebrate how many readers they have and granted, they worked very hard to become as popular as they are.

          It just seems that they have not really internalized yet what that really means. There is a level of responsibility that one takes on if one gets popular enough in this digital age.

          It’s why the bar of professionalism needs to be raised. When a puerile joke or a missing disclaimer can literally in one shot turn thousands of people away from the pro 2nd amendment cause at a time… shit just got real.

        • Thanks for clarifying, Toby– I’ll give some credit to TTAG for at least trying to better represent the current post. But if someone’s a real casual, superficial reader it’ll still be easy to think, “Oh s–t this is happening now?” and assume it’s a 2014 event.

      • I knew it was bs as well but that doesn’t make it useful, informative, or anything more than something to give a hard-on to survivalists who are looking forward to that moment.

        It’s pulp and pathetic.

    • Sorry, but in this case I have to disagree.

      “Thomas Gage”
      “72 killed.”
      “And that’s how the Revolutionary War began”

      Besides which, the events are reported accurately.

      The only people upon which there should be any shame are Americans who do not recognize the events of this story.

  14. I saw the headline and thought, “ooh! Another Revolutionary War analogy!” I always enjoy these. And also it’s terrifying.

    • It’s not an analogy, it’s a historical event described in the contemporary media writing style.

  15. Actually had me going for a minute. Went to CNN to make to see if was real….should of recognized governor s name…….sad but in today’s light a story like this is believable…..this is what happens when Americans are being forced to look at what our government could be capable of….

  16. If a similar situation was to arise today in Massachusetts, the headline would read “Local Citizens Voluntarily Surrender Their Arms.”

    • not… “Retired Lawyer leads gang of insurrectionists to repel law enforcement and ATF against illegal gun possession?”

      • (1) I don’t live in Boston. (2) Due to the “great work” of the Boston PD, there aren’t 72 guns in the whole damn city (unless I’m visiting there). (3) I’m not a shepherd. How can I lead sheep?

        • You do know that there is a gun club WITHIN the Boston city limits right? The 2A being exercised by law abiding citizens isn’t dead in Boston. Just closeted due to the bigotry of the local political and media cartel.

  17. Good lord. If you didn’t recognize the story by the 3rd line (let alone the headline itself) you should probably stop complaining about RF’s analogy and get your hands on a history book.

    • Did it make me wonder, yes certainly. Did I lock and load half way through the article, nope. TTAG may be fast to post actual news but I would have gotten ten other email alerts if this was going down today. I don’t even use FB or twitter and I got 3-4 updates on a sick doctor traveling by plane to the US. just saying…..

      I think everyone’s reaction is a bit over the top.

  19. So it is starting. Right wing tax protest group? OK that almost sounds like our founding fathers. The only advice i have for those second amendment and constitution fighters is; When it happens again, aim for the face, and below the belt where there is no armor.
    How long before this comes to a state near you? Or better yet, your neighborhood?

  21. I took it as another TTAG what if piece until Governor Gates was quoted. Knowing that Deval Patrick is currently Governor of the Commonwealth and that there was a famous British officer who became Governor of the Colony I caught on right then and there.

    I do quibble with the use of the term National Guard helping with confiscation in this retelling of the start of the Revolution since the National Guard was the Minuteman.

    • Tell that to the residents of New Orleans, wherein the National Guard did in fact assist in the forcible confiscation of private property (guns in this case) in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — who could do nothing to provide security.

      A few units, one from Ohio, stood down and refused to comply and were savaged by their commanders for it.

      • Give me a break. This isn’t a real story. It was the retelling of Lexington-Concord as modern parable. The Minutemen were the guard. To be faithful to history it should have been the Guard resisting the regular Army.

      • And when (not if ) it comes to the real day , take your time aim for the head and slowly make every shot count (308 Win. works very nice )… body armory be dammed…History repeats ……..we have been WARNED ! THANKS ROBERT you made a very needed point…FREEDOM is NOT FREE!

  22. The Massachusetts colonists were left-wing tax protestors, not right-wing tax protestors. The difference matters.

    -John

  23. I have seen this one printed in a newspaper form, buts it’s TRUE History repeats it’s self. The only question is will we learn anything ??????????

  24. changing the title of the post, really?

    Are you really going to make life altering decision based on a single websites blog entry? How many websites have been hacked and had fake shit posted, none right? That never happens. If it is on the internet it must be true, right?

    TTAG, you could have just put it in quotes if you were getting hammered with complaints.

    Orwell broadcast causing a panic is a myth, invented by the newspapers as they were facing competition for advertising dollars from the radio/broadcast industry.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/history/2013/10/orson_welles_war_of_the_worlds_panic_myth_the_infamous_radio_broadcast_did.single.html

  27. Note to whiners: Even though Robert is Not From Here, he’s been here long enough to grasp the subtlety of Texas humor, the best of which plays you along with a story that seems real as all get out . . . and then slowly let’s you know that you’ve been had. The bigger the “had” the better the joke. If you didn’t get this joke in about .2 seconds of reading it, shame on you. How can you claim to be a Person Of The Gun and not recognize this iconic lesson from revolutionary war American history? But, that’s OK, we all have to deal with our “duuh” factors every now and again.

    Coach teaching history class: OK, guys, tell me who wrote Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn?

    Bubba: Gee, coach, that’s a tough one . . .

  28. It cracks me up that so many of you here don’t even know the very incident that could be called the seed of this nation.

    Your hearts are in the right place, but learn your history people.

  29. I knew the second I read the headline what the gag was. That said, I wondered what caliber I needed to defeat those vests and at what range would be beyond their effective range. I’m no sniper, but a scoped Remington 700 should do the trick against people who always cower waiting for backup…

  30. To those who don’t get the gag, read the rest of the comments.
    BTW, confiscation is already here in ban states. AR-15 pattern rifles were never intended to use non-detachable magazines and yet remain one of the most common types today. By banning the features that make them functional (mag release, pistol grip, etc) they are actively trying to ban all of them.
    This is probably obvious to most, but to those who just think the laws are annoying, think again.

  32. If you didn’t catch on after the first few lines, you might have learned US history in a government school.

  33. I guess someday we will grow weary of the Federal government infringing our rights and saying, “but it’s OK!”

  34. “Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gee, having Gage as the Governor might be sort of a heads up for the time period?

  35. To answer your question at the top RF, and despite Ralph’s pejorative assessment of the citizens of Boston, I’m pretty sure that it would go down a hell of a lot harder than a great many people might think it would.

  36. When I read the headline in the original article in another source, you could have tried (and failed) to drive a straight pin up my ass with a 20-pound sledge. But once read, I thought that this could be an entirely possible scenario in a modern age.

    I mean, isn’t that what a lot of posters to this and similar sites say they would do, if the time comes to confront confiscation head-on?

    Like I said, if it happened once, it can surely happen again.

  37. Buy a clue. Not hard to figure out RF was referring to the American Revolution. I have to agree with Ralph. Look at how Bostonians reacted like good little sheep when the city was shut down for the Tsarnyev boys shenanigans. Sheep will be sheep…

  38. At least the British were looking for artillery and powder….
    Wonder if Ebola escapes on the East Coast, the WH can have martial law?

    • Martial law? Not the name is too military and thus yuckie. They would call is something like “citizens who care” law. Then yes obviously.

      Quarantine – No
      Immunization – Only of legal residents for self inflicted “diseases”
      Background Checks – No
      Border Security – No
      Immigration control – No
      Immigration freeze – No
      Border Fence – No
      Mass deportation – No

  39. And the mindless masses of Kardashians-watching zombies said “the government saved us from those crazy people” and the country went down the socialist shitter as Khrushchev predicted. In the 18th century people were outraged by the audacity of a government to tax without representation, to barge in to people’s homes, to make up crimes and arrest people for them. Now, I don’t think the average American would care.

  40. Umm, when did this happen??? I’ve seen post as old a April 2013 with the exact same story… Sooo, It’s August not April.. who’s bright idea was it to start this going???

  41. According to a Dept. Of Reichland Security memo that leaked back in April 2009 veterans, like myself, are considered potential bad guys. If being a patriot is considered a bad thing by Fedzilla then I wear it as a badge of honor.

  42. Good one Robert. I read it after the first head line was changed. But it was pretty obvious as to the modern retelling of the “shot heard around the world”; but for the ” history challenged” it could take a bit to realize the reference.

    Our forefathers were giants among men. They left us with their blood and thier lives an incredible gift; I wonder if we will protect that birth right or sell it for a mess of pottage?

  43. I think “Boston Strong” gave us that answer, and showed the government everything they needed to know, slam dunk.

  47. Phew! You honestly had me going for a minute there. Not much in this article struck me as out-of-the-question until I got to the names at the end. (Yes, I was bad at the names-and-dates thing in history.)

  48. It will be an old guy that sets it off.

    Maybe some old Vietnam Vet who was everyone’s Little League coach when they were young. Has a lifetime of public service, probably a volunteer firefighter, or maybe a Deacon. He lost his kid to cancer, or a drunk driver, or in Iraq.

    He’ll the cantankerous old coot that’s always spouting off, but never enough be annoying, just enough for everyone to chuckle, nod and say, “It WAS better in the old days, wasn’t it Al?” He’s a harmless old man who’s served his country and has had enough pain in his life. He can have his say.

    The confiscation raids were running like clock-work up until then. Lightning fast in-outs with overwhelming force. No resistance given because they were either away when the door was kicked in or were too intimidated by the sudden appearance of 25 men with tactical gear who just swarmed into their living room.

    If someone gave them lip, they were arrested inside of the home, where none of the public would see. A statement was then given to the press, explaining that the owner had possession of dangerous firearms in violation of law and dozens, possibly hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

    But with AL, it all goes to shit. Maybe he has claims a bum ticker and gets them to let him out for fresh air. Maybe he drives up as they’re clearing the house. He’s visible to the public.

    He’s also very, very, pissed.

    He starts arguing with the agents and they do what they do best. They sweep his feet and put him face-down on the deck, one agent with a knee on the back of his neck while another cuffs him. A third agent makes some smart-ass remark, because it’s funny and he wants to make his co-workers laugh. The raids haven’t had a problem in the past, so he disregards that he’s within earshot of the small crowd of neighbors that has now formed.

    Someone sees Al there on the ground. With a knee on his neck. And he remembers when Al coached his kids in Little League, how his son and Al’s son both enlisted together, and sitting with Al and just being there for him when Al had to put his son in the ground. He’ll think of that when he sees the frail old man, crying from pain, pride, anger, and shame, being handcuffed on his own lawn for daring to question the men taking his property.

    That guy in the crowd will say something. He’ll be told to go home. He won’t. The crowd will be told to disperse. They won’t. They’ll stir uneasily, and, once they realize that no one has left, their eyes will harden and they’ll start yelling comments too. They’ll gain courage from numbers.

    The agents will single out the first guy who made a comment and make an example of him. He gets dog-piled because everyone’s adrenaline is up. While that man is screaming underneath a mass of agents, another agent raises his AR-15 and addresses the crowd. He tells them that unless they want whats happening to the man to happen to them, then they need to go return to their homes.

    A few of them men in the crown hear that. The see an old man on the ground, a pillar of their community. In cuffs.

    They see their neighbor, who spoke out, on the ground. In cuffs.

    They see agents of the government, in full battle-rattle, pointing assault rifles at their wives and children.

    So they go home. But they come right back.

    And that’s how it starts.

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