MOLON LABE: NPR Reporter Has No Idea What ‘Come And Take It’ Means.

Sunday marked the 181st anniversary of the Battle of Gonzales, the first military engagement of the Texas Revolution, when Texian militiamen, responding to Mexican soldiers demanding the surrender of a small brass cannon, coined the now-famous battle cry, “Come and Take It!”

An NPR reporter decided to mark this anniversary with a story about how the phrase has been stolen by Second Amendment activists, “with no appreciation of its origins.” Some local residents of modern-day Gonzales, we’re told, “think it’s been cheapened—and they want it back.”

But neither the hapless NPR reporter nor the several anti-gun residents of Gonzales interviewed for the story know the actual origin of the phrase, or why its application to the ongoing national debate about gun control and the Second Amendment is entirely appropriate—and historically accurate.

They are blissfully unaware that “Come and take it” is a quote from King Leonidas I of Thermopylae.

“Blissfully unaware” is too kind. There’s scant evidence that there’s anyone in the field of journalism with a deep understanding of guns or gun rights, or with any willingness to learn.