Show Dont Tread On Me From the beginning of the United States and long after the security of oC the nation and of the individual depended depended de de- upon rifles riles and handguns that held predators both human and animal at bay Every schoolchild knows or should know the part that the skill of American riflemen have played in our history from Crom the battle battie of Bunker Hill lull to the jungles of Vietnam The extent to which a nation may have to depend upon citizen possession of firearms can be s seen seen en in a Israel 1 Jac Weller honorary curator of ot th the the West WestPoint WestPoint WestPoint Point Museum and author of several books on military history has written of the current travails of Israel which he calls A Nation Of Armed Citizens Citizens He says its it's difficult in m Israel today to distinguish between the military null mili- tary apparatus and the civilians civilians m In arms In some areas of Israel every individual individual ual must carry his personal weapon with him at all times Almost every single single sin sin- gle man and many of oC the women in Israel can fire Cire at least one weapon adequately Mr Weller witnessed a school picnic at which teachers carried submachine guns and the boys had rifles rilles close by as they munched their lunches It is difficult for Cor a U U. S S. S citizen to believe that any nation could be reduced reduced re reo to such extremities But as Mr Weller concludes although heavily outnumbered outnumbered out out- numbered by hostile Arabs the Israelis are likely to survive because a nation in m arms Is hard to destroy Even in this nuclear age the right of firearm ownership by responsible citizens citi citi- zen zens en and that means the great body of af Americans gives meaning to those historic words Dont Don Tread On Me imprinted on the famed rattlesnake flags of the American Continental Army of 1776 |