How British Gun Control was the Spark that Started the War for Independence
It was gun control.
That’s what kicked off the fighting at Lexington and Concord – and started the War for Independence.
But they never teach that in government-run schools. It’s almost as if they want you to believe the Founders fought a long, bloody war just to get representatives to tax them.
That’s a lie.
The truth? Months before the battles of Lexington and Concord, the British launched a systematic campaign to disarm the people – confiscating powder, banning imports, carrying out warrantless searches, and seizing private arms.
On April 19, 1775, the revolutionaries finally fought back.
A LONG TRAIN OF ABUSES
To understand what led to the first shots of the war, we have to back up just a little.
After the Seven Years’ War ended in 1763, the British Empire was buried in debt. So they did two things that changed everything: they stationed a permanent standing army in the colonies – and they expected the Americans to pay for it.
They tried to raise that revenue with a series of internal taxes – including some of the most notorious still remembered today:
- The Stamp Act of 1765
- The Townshend Acts of 1767
- The Tea Act of 1773
Each time, the people resisted – with petitions, protests, and non-compliance. And sometimes, it escalated. In 1770, five colonists were shot and killed by British troops in what came to be known as the Boston Massacre.
Then, in December 1773, it all boiled over with the Boston Tea Party.
DISARMAMENT BY DESIGN
The British response was swift and brutal, aiming to suppress any colonial defiance.
In the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament passed what became known as the Coercive Acts. Among other things, they closed the port of Boston and revoked the Massachusetts charter – bringing the colony under the total control of the British government.
The move only escalated tensions. To many colonists, it was yet another attempt to strip them of their right to self-rule and force them into submission.
At the center of this strategy was military control – and that meant taking the people’s arms.
General Thomas Gage was appointed to replace Thomas Hutchinson as military governor of Massachusetts earlier in 1774. He arrived in Boston and formally took office on May 13.
As Dave Kopel writes, Gage believed the best way to keep the peace was to disarm the colonists. He set in motion a secret plan to remove military supplies – especially guns and gunpowder – from public storehouses across New England. That plan was already in motion by late summer 1774.
Most of the weapons and powder in those magazines belonged to provincial governments. But some were owned by individual towns, merchants, or private citizens. The goal wasn’t just to neutralize government forces – it was to disarm the people.
THE POWDER ALARM
On August 31, 1774, General Gage quietly dispatched Sheriff David Phips to Charleston with orders to prepare the removal of gunpowder stored in the local magazine. The following morning, a detachment of 250 British troops, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Maddison, traveled up the Mystic River and landed a short distance from the powder house.
With keys handed over by Phips, the soldiers emptied the magazine without resistance. After securing the powder, most of the force returned to Boston – but a smaller unit continued on to Cambridge, where they seized two artillery pieces.
News of the British operation spread fast – and panic spread with it. Rumors flew that soldiers had opened fire on colonists and that Boston was under attack from the sea.
The response was overwhelming. Militia units mobilized across New England. Within a matter of hours, nearly 20,000 armed colonists were on the march toward Boston.
The reports turned out to be false, and the standoff ended without bloodshed. The episode became known as the Powder Alarm – and it sent a message louder than any gunshot.
The people were ready to fight. And the British knew it.
A WARRANTLESS ESCALATION
The British didn’t back down – they escalated.
With tensions already high, General Gage ordered warrantless searches for arms and ammunition. The policy sparked outrage across the colonies. The Boston Gazette called it Gage’s most offensive act yet.
Meanwhile, the Sons of Liberty weren’t just marching in the streets – they were laying groundwork for open defiance.
On September 9, 1774, the Suffolk Resolves – drafted by Dr. Joseph Warren – were formally adopted.
They called for a full boycott of British goods, outright defiance of the Coercive Acts, disobedience to court orders, tax resistance, and more.
It was a public declaration that British authority would no longer be obeyed.
This wasn’t protest. It was revolution – in writing.
THE PEOPLE TAKE CHARGE
As part of the Coercive Acts, Parliament passed the Massachusetts Government Act, which nullified the colony’s 1691 charter and stripped the people of their right to elect local officials. Power was centralized in the hands of the royal governor – and that meant Thomas Gage.
Under this new authority, Gage dissolved the Massachusetts Assembly in late September 1774. But the people didn’t comply. Ninety elected representatives met anyway in Salem on October 5. Two days later, they reassembled in Concord and officially organized themselves as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress.
With John Hancock as president, this new body became the de facto government of the province outside of British-occupied Boston. It collected taxes, purchased supplies, raised a militia, and began securing ammunition stores. Massachusetts was now governing itself – not in theory, but in practice.
This wasn’t just resistance. It was a revolution.
Meanwhile, Paul Revere was on his way back from Philadelphia with letters from the First Continental Congress. Just weeks earlier, he had delivered the Suffolk Resolves — helping secure unanimous support for Massachusetts in its stand against British aggression.
Now, the communication was going both ways. The colonies weren’t just pushing back. They were building their own governments.
Just days later – on October 14, 1774 – the First Continental Congress issued the Declaration and Resolves. It condemned the Coercive Acts, laid out a clear list of colonial rights, and set the tone for what was to come.
“To these grievous acts and measures, Americans cannot submit.”
DISARM THE PEOPLE
Three days later, Lord Dartmouth – Secretary of State for the Colonies – sent a letter to General Gage.
His suggestion was simple – disarm the people.
“Amongst other things which have occurred on the present occasion as likely to prevent the fatal consequence of having recourse to the sword, that of disarming the Inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and Rhode Island, has been suggested.”
He left it to Gage to decide when and how to act – but the goal was clear.
“Whether such a Measure was ever practicable, or whether it can be attempted in the present state of things you must be the best judge; but it certainly is a Measure of such a nature as ought not to be adopted without almost a certainty of success, and therefore I only throw it out for your consideration.”
Days later, the Crown went even further – turning disarmament from a suggestion into policy.
On October 19, 1774, the King issued an Order in Council that banned all exports of arms and ammunition to the American colonies.
“his Majesty judging it necessary to prohibit the exportation of Gunpowder, or any sort of Arms or Ammunition out of this Kingdom, or carrying the same coastwise for some time, doth therefore, with the advice of his Privy Council, hereby order, require, prohibit, and command, that no person or persons whatsoever”
As Kopel explains, the order was a complete and total ban in practice
“Read literally, the order only required a government permit to export arms or ammunition from Great Britain to America. In practice, no permits were granted.”
The Crown sent orders to the colonial governors (via Gage, for distribution) – and to the British navy – to immediately block all arms and ammunition shipments into the 13 colonies.
But the colonists weren’t just sitting back.
HEATING UP
In December 1774, word spread that British ships were heading to seize arms and powder stored at Fort William and Mary in New Hampshire. The Boston Committee of Correspondence sent Paul Revere north with a warning.
On December 14, a group of about 400 New Hampshire patriots took action. They stormed the fort and preemptively captured all the military supplies on hand – including roughly 100 barrels of gunpowder.
The next day, they returned. This time, they seized 16 cannons, 60 muskets, and other military stores – removing everything before British reinforcements could arrive.
That same day – December 15 – General Gage responded to Lord Dartmouth’s proposal to disarm the colonies.
“Your Lordship’s idea of disarming certain Provinces would doubtless be consistent with prudence and safety; but it neither is nor has been practicable, without having recourse to force, and being master of the country.”
Translation: If you want obedience, you’ll have to take their guns – and use massive force to do it.
A TIMELESS WARNING
In early January 1775, a patriot writer warned of what was coming – with a lesson from ancient history.
In a letter published in the New Hampshire Gazette and Historical Chronicle, he compared the British arms embargo and threats of confiscation to the Roman subjugation of Carthage.
“Shall we like the Carthaginians, peaceably surrender our Arms to our Enemies, in Hopes of obtaining in Return the Liberties we have so long been contending for?”
And he answered with a call to action:
“We have not by the Law of Self Preservation, a Right to seize upon all those within our Power, in order to defend the LIBERTIES which GOD and Nature have given us…?”
The people saw what was coming – and so did the British.
On February 9, 1775, Parliament made it official – declaring that a rebellion officially existed in Massachusetts.
FINAL ORDERS: ARREST AND DISARM
In late January 1775, Lord Dartmouth sent another message to General Gage but it didn’t arrive until April 14 – just five days before Lexington and Concord.
This time, there was no ambiguity.
“The King’s Dignity, & the Honor and Safety of the Empire, require, that, in such a Situation, Force should be repelled by Force…”
More troops were on the way – but Dartmouth wanted Gage to act.
“The first & essential step… would be to arrest and imprison the principal actors & abettors in the Provincial Congress…”
And finally, the blow that confirmed what was coming:
“Upon no account suffer the Inhabitants of at least the Town of Boston, to assemble themselves in arms on any pretence whatever, either of Town guard or Militia duty.”
THE PEOPLE FOUGHT BACK
Just days later, British troops began their fateful mission – ordered to seize arms and powder.
The people didn’t wait to be disarmed. They stood their ground.
Shots were fired.
And the War for Independence began – with a fight against gun control.
On July 6, 1775, the Second Continental Congress made that view official in the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, which was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson.
“In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birth-right, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it; for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our forefathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms.”
The fighting didn’t start over taxes or representation. It started out of self defense against a gun control program being enforced through violence.
“We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.”
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