A few missives and quotes from our founding fathers on gun control

George Washington
“A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined..."

Samuel Adams
“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”

Thomas Jefferson
“The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

“The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”

Patrick Henry
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”

George Mason
“To disarm the people…[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them.”

James Madison
“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.”

“The ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone.”

**Madison was vehemently against a standing army because history shows that standing armies can be used as tools of tyranny as well as tools of defense.

Noah Webster
“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States.”