Your Turn: Pro-Gun Rally Has History in the Crosshairs

Here once the embattled farmers stood and—even if Emerson’s prose puts it a dozen miles west—fired the “shot heard ‘round the world.” Now, nearly a quarter-millennium later, Lexington’s Battle Green finds itself home to a gun battle of a different kind.

Next Friday, April 19, Gun Rights Across America plans to hold a “Muster on the Battle Green” rally in Lexington, featuring Oath Keepers Founder Stewart Rhodes as a guest speaker.

On the local front, there has been some talk about mounting a counter-rally. And the newish national group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America has taken notice of the rally and says some local members may stand in silent opposition to, but are unlikely to engage, the pro-Second Amendment rally.

All that’s to say it’s still unclear whether there will be an organized opposition to the Gun Rights Across America rally, an assembly its organizers acknowledged will capitalize on the history of the time and date. As Kevin Francisco, one of the group’s two Massachusetts coordinators told Patch recently:

April 19th, will be the 238th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which initiated on the sacred and historical site now known as the Lexington Battle Green. We wanted to have the rally on this location as a reminder. A reminder of what our ancestors and forefathers sacrificed for us to enjoy and exercise the rights we have today. We want people to feel the ghosts of that battlefield and let that experience inspire them to keep working hard to defend our rights. We also want to honor those who have fallen on that sacred ground, and let them know that their sacrifice was not done in vain. That we continue today, to ensure those rights they fought so hard for are being preserved.

 Others, who would hope to tighten gun laws and/or are critical of the group’s platform, have argued that using the Battle Green and April 19 as a platform is a disrespectful publicity stunt.

So, where do you come down on the issue?  

Do you appreciate the time and place as an appropriate place for a “pro-Second Amendment” rally?  Or do you think the rally is an affront to a historical landmark ? Or maybe the time—April 19—and place—the Lexington Battle Green—have nothing to do with your feelings whatsoever?