Sorry...I didn't check the link, which had active content. 1775 document: Colonists asked pacifists to pay - Yahoo! News My point really had nothing to do paying a fine if you didn't want to be armed, but rather with this statement from the broadside: My thinking was revolving around personal responsibility in terms of the duties of being a citizen. Although having a CCW permit would improve public safety perhaps. Of course, now that I think about it a bit more, this is a slippery-slope and, depending on who is in office, the argument has been used recently to try and tax us more. Think "Cap and Trade" or "Kyoto Treaty" or anything to do with global warming. Politicians can screw almost any good intention up. Maybe we could get a refund for politicians who just vote "here" or aren't present all-together.