What follows is a link to a very interesting and quotable article.
One excerpt:
QuoteNonetheless, by early 1775, the British began a de facto policy of disarming the colonists.
What was actually going on may be exemplified by the experience of one Thomas Ditson, who was tarred and feathered by British soldiers. In his affidavit, Ditson claimed, "I enquired of some Townsmen who had any guns to sell; one whom I did not know, replied he had a very fine Gun to sell." Since the one who offered the gun was a soldier, Ditson continued:
there was something not right . . . and left the Gun, and coming away he followed me and urg'd the Gun upon me. . . .
When he finally paid money to the soldier, several other soldiers appeared and seized Ditson, whom they proceeded to tar and feather. However, instead of entrapment, the soldier swore in his affidavit that it was a case of a rebel trying to obtain arms and urging a soldier to desert. The citizen said "that he would buy more Firelocks of the Deponent, and as many as he could get any other soldier to sell him. . . ."
[Footnotes omitted]
Assuming Mr. Ditson was truthful in his affidavit, it is clear example of entrapment.
This article was written by Stephen P. Halbrook, a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and author of the Independent books The Right to Bear Arms, Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France, Gun Control in the Third Reich, The Founders' Second Amendment and That Every Man Be Armed. Mr. Halbrook speaks nearly every year at the NRA Annual Meeting Legal Forum.
https://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1422#13 (https://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1422#13)
Greg Seneff, Sr.
"Bluegrass Colonel"