This message was from GARY STEINWEG to ALL,
originally in conference RTKBA
and was forwarded to you by ERIC GRAY.
                    -------------------------
                      The Price They Paid
                      -------------------
                       by Garry Hildreth
                       Erie, Pennsylvania
     Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who
signed the Declaration of Independence?
     Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and
tortured before they died.  Twelve had their homes ransacked and
burned.  Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had
two sons captured.  Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or
hardships of the revolutionary war.
     They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and
their sacred honor.
     What kind of men were they?  Twenty-four were lawyers
and jurists.  Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large
plantation owners, men of means, well educated.  But they signed
the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty
would be death if they were captured.
     Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader,
saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy.  He sold his
home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
     Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was
forced to move his family almost constantly.  He served in the
Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding.  His
possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
     Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dllery, Hall,
Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
     At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that
the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for
his headquarters.  He quietly urged General George Washinton to
open fire.  The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
     Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.  The
enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
     John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was
dying.  Their 13 children fled for their lives.  His fields and his
gristmill were laid to waste.  For more than a year he lived in forests
and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children
vanished.  A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken
heart.  Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
     Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American
Revolution.  These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians.
They were soft-spoken men of means and education.  They had
security, but they valued liberty more.  Standing tall, straight, and
unwavering, they pledged:  "For the support of this declaration, with
firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we
mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honor."
     They gave you and I a free and independent America.  The
history books never told you a lot of what happened in the
revolutionary war.  We didn't just fight the British.  We were British
subjects at that time and we fought our own government!  Perhaps
you can now see why our founding fathers had a hatred for standing
armies, and allowed throught the second amendment for everyone to
be armed.
     Frankly, I can't read this without crying.  Some of us take
these liberties so much for granted.  We shouldn't.
___
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This message was from JEFF RUDD to ALL,
originally in conference MilitiasPA
and was forwarded to you by ERIC GRAY.
                    -------------------------
The following press release was issued May 2, 1995:
      Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc.
          America's Aggressive Civil Rights Organization
          Tax Exempt under IRS Code Section 501 (c) (3)
                                            FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
        Contact: Aaron Zelman, Executive Director: (414) 769-0760
                   JEWISH PRO-FIREARMS GROUP
               CHALLENGES ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
           TO OPEN DEBATE ON MILITIAS AND GUN CONTROL
     May 2, 1995 -- "The Anti-Defamation League is driving the
post-Oklahoma feeding frenzy on militia groups and by doing so
has libeled every American who wants to uphold the civil right to
be armed," says Aaron Zelman, a Conservative Jew, Vietnam-era
veteran, and federally-licensed firearms dealer who heads the
4,000-member Milwaukee-based organization, Jews for the
Preservation of Firearms Ownership.  "JPFO -- which has shown
publicly that 'gun control' has repeatedly cleared the way for
genocides in this century -- demands that the Anti-Defamation
League stop defaming decent, law-abiding Americans."
     Zelman calls the ADL's recent media appearances "vile
defamation of militias  ... extremely dangerous  ...  a tool to
undermine our civil right to be armed, which is a key pillar of
the Bill of Rights."  Zelman continues, "We need to be very clear
that the ADL defames all militias as being racists, hatemongers,
bigots, etc.  These charges are bald-faced lies!  The ADL even
labels as an anti-Semite an Orthodox Jew, Norm Resnick, who urges
firearms ownership and hosts a 'patriot' talk show in Colorado."
     "The ADL just doesn't get it," says Zelman.  "They don't see
that the biggest murderer of Jews has not been underground hate
groups -- such as the KKK, the Weathermen, etc. -- but
governments gone bad.  By contrast, almost all militia members
love the Rule of Law."
     Zelman says, "We publicly challenge the Anti-Defamation
League to debate JPFO in an open forum.  They need to apologize
to the millions of Americans whom they have defamed, and explain
their support for 'gun control,' a policy that has cleared the
way for seven major genocides in which 56 million persons --
including millions of children -- have been murdered."
     JPFO is an aggressive civil rights and educational
organization, founded in October, 1989, which aims to destroy the
idea that 'gun control' is desirable.  It publishes THE FIREARMS
SENEL, a quarterly journal.  It has published several books,
including LETHAL LAWS: GUN CONTROL IS THE KEY TO GENOCIDE, which
reproduces the very 'gun control' laws that cleared the way for
mega-murder.
     Zelman will next speak on May 2, 1995 at the University of
Iowa, in Iowa City, Papa John Business College, Room W-151, from
7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.  Contact Mike Ierly in Iowa City for
information: (319) 358-4522.
       2782 So. Wentworth Ave., Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53207
              Voice 414-769-0760   Fax 414-483-8435
                                -30-
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