By 1775 Brits had clearly begun war against their American colonies, in one well-known incident of which they sent Redcoats to Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, to seize American militia arms.
In defending their rights to keep and bear arms, American militia-men first battled Redcoats.
The 1861 equivalent was the Confederate's assault on American Army troops at Fort Sumter.
Both battles created states of war against the United Colonies / States.
“By 1775 Brits had clearly begun war against their American colonies, in one well-known incident of which they sent Redcoats to Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, to seize American militia arms.”
“The 1861 equivalent was the Confederate’s assault on American Army troops at Fort Sumter.”
History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme. Starting with 1861 and Fort Sumter ignores what came before.
In 1859 John Brown seized the armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in order to distribute the weapons and initiate a widespread guerrilla war within the southern states. Based upon his reputation for murder at Pottawatomie Creek Brown had been recruited and financed for this covert war by northern political activists.
The 1859 John Brown Raid marked the beginning of the northern war of aggression. Within two years the war against the people of the southern American states went from the covert violence of John Brown’s raid to the overt war of the Radical Republicans who regarded Brown as a messiah.