Posted July 4, 2015 7:20 pm by Comments

By Gregory Smith

In 1776, our forefathers fought for independence, liberty, and to establish a new form of government free of tyrannical rule. We celebrate their victory and our independence every Fourth of July as, “Independence Day.”

Key to the victory of the colonists over the British Empire was their access to arms, including muskets, cannon, rockets, powder, and shot. The symbolism of the Fourth of July is rich with references to those arms, as seen in our fireworks displays.

As James Heintze writes in, “The First Celebrations,” on July 4th in 1777 thirteen gunshots were fired in salute as evening fell. Our nation’s first capital of Philadelphia celebrated the first anniversary of our country’s independence from an oppressive and overly taxing English monarchy in a manner a modern American would find quite familiar: an official dinner for the Continental Congress, toasts, 13-gun salutes, speeches, prayers, music, parades, troop reviews, and fireworks. Ships were decked with red, white, and blue bunting.

To this day, a 13-gun salute, one gun for each state in the United States at the time, called a “Salute to the Union,” is fired on Independence Day at noon by any capable military base.

Guns and fireworks are symbols of …read more

Source:: Selling the Second Amendment

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