"With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.
"In our own native land, in defense of the freedom that is our birthright, 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 fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. 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."
-Second Continental Congress
July 6, 1775
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A Declaration of Arms:
About the project
An ongoing documentary project focusing on gun owners and their sport. Centered around the On Target Shooting Range in Asheville, NC, the project records the moments, passions, and concerns that are unique to America’s gun owners.
The Declaration of Arms, a little-known historical document, was composed by the Second Continental Congress as an explanation for their use of force against the British. Something of these intentions still exists today, at On Target, where men and women declare their intent to govern themselves by whatever force necessary.
The Declaration of Arms, a little-known historical document, was composed by the Second Continental Congress as an explanation for their use of force against the British. Something of these intentions still exists today, at On Target, where men and women declare their intent to govern themselves by whatever force necessary.
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