to Drayton, fell on the legislature "like an explosion of thunder." John Rutledge accused Gadsden of treason, and members found themselves frightened by the idea of independence; according to E. Stanly Godbold Jr. and Robert Hilliard Woody in their 1982 biography of Gadsden, the South Carolina Congress was sent "into chaos." Despite the impact of this speech, however, the exact words Gadsden spoke "were not recorded." Gadsden's presentation of the rattlesnake flag was recorded in the South Carolina congressional journals on February 9, 1776: The Gadsden flag has been described as the "first American flag designed expressly for American naval use," and newspaper accounts at the time indicate there was some discussion about adopting it as the "colors of the American navy." The Continental Marines also used the flag during the war. On January 5, 1776, Commodore Hopkins proclaimed a series of flag signals that were included in the Orders and Directions for the Commander-in-Chief of Fleet of United Colonies, issued by the Naval Committee of the Continental Congress; among the flags Hopkins listed was "the Standard or Gadsden's flag." By late 1775, especially after the Prohibitory Act, many American colonists did not see themselves as subjects to The Crown but instead as independent individuals possessing the rights of liberty and revolution. These rapidly growing convictions helped fuel the flag's adoption. Modern use For historical reasons, the Gadsden flag is still popularly flown in Charleston, South Carolina, the city where Christopher Gadsden first presented the flag and where it was commonly used during the revolution, along with the blue and white crescent flag of pre-Civil War South Carolina. The Gadsden flag has become a popular specialty license plate in several states. , the following states offer the option of obtaining a Gadsden flag specialty license plate: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Use as a libertarian symbol In the 1970s the Gadsden flag started being used by libertarians, using it as a symbol representing individual rights and limited government. The flag's prominent yellow color is also strongly associated with libertarianism. The libertarian Free State Project uses a modified version of the flag with the snake replaced with a porcupine, a symbol of the movement. Use as an anti-establishment symbol In 2014, the flag was used by Jerad and Amanda Miller, the perpetrators of the 2014 Las Vegas shootings who killed two police