Until last week, Byron was best known to the outside world for Coos Canyon and gold panning in the Swift River.

Then two out of three selectmen voted to place a symbolic article on the town warrant requiring all 58 households to own a gun.

We say symbolic because, as one selectman told the Sun Journal, everyone in town probably has a gun. Beyond that, selectmen had no intention of enforcing this rule.

Attorney General Janet Mills even told the Bangor Daily News last week that a 1989 law prohibits cities or towns from adopting rules, laws and ordinances pertaining to gun use, purchase or ownership.

As we said, this ordinance was meant to send a signal to the outside world: Our government is trying to take our guns and we won’t stand for it.

“We’re trying to prevent someone from coming into our town and trying to restrict our rights,” Head Selectman Anne Simmons-Edmunds told the Sun Journal.

This fear of an actual government invasion is widespread on the Web, and gun absolutists are fond of quoting Thomas Jefferson, who wrote this about Shay’s Rebellion in 1787:

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure.” Thus the need for an armed citizenry.

In the same letter Jefferson also said this about the Massachusetts rebels and rebellion:

“I say nothing of its motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness … The people cannot be all, & always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.”

So, Jefferson seemed to be saying, it’s good that people kick up their heels from time to time, even if the rebels here are acting on “facts they misconceive.” Jefferson felt the way to quell a rebellion “is to set them right as to facts …” 

While the fear of actual government takeover expressed by the Byron selectmen and others may occur in futuristic movies, the facts here seem, as Jefferson said, misconceived.

Let’s take a look.

If there are people in government plotting to seize guns in the United States, who are they? More importantly, why?

Who would carry that out? The U.S. military? 

That would take a massive force. We’ve pretty well worn out our Army trying to bring peace to Afghanistan, a nation of 35 million.

What’s more, we doubt the Army would blindly carry out that order. This is a voluntary, citizen military composed of our friends, neighbors and relatives, not mercenaries or robots.

How big of an army would it take to seize the guns? There are about 3 million people in all branches of the military today, and there are 350 million of us scattered over a huge area and we own an estimated 310 million guns. An absurdly large job.

Who would be paying these people, assuming we probably wouldn’t be paying our taxes? Would they take our guns and wallets?

You see, when you think through the mechanics, these conspiracy theories begin to sound, well, ludicrous.

Fortunately, a substantial majority of Byron residents weren’t willing to obey their selectmen overlords. They staged a rebellion, angrily objecting to an oppressive government trying to force guns upon them, and voted the warrant down.

Yes, the tree of liberty has been refreshed. And by clear-thinking citizens armed only with their votes.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.