Sure can. We were at war, which is a hugely different concept.
There was no state of war declared at Lexington and Concord. The Redcoats were the legitimate civil authorities in the colonies enforcing English policy in accordance with English law, which policy had by then become one of disarming the colonists in contradiction to long-established rights of English citizenship.
True. However, before the Shot Heard 'round the World, war was a foregone conclusion, which was why the British army had marched on Lexington & Concord. All that was left was formality.
How do you know such couldn't be likewise the case in the near future?
