What American Founding Fathers Really Thought About Guns

The founding fathers thoughts were not monolithic and were more complex than either side of the gun control issue acknowledges.

The gun control debate often tries to speak to the intentions of the Founding Fathers producing countless memes with misquotations, partial quotes, and quotes taken out of context.

Thomas Jefferson wrote this into the 1776 draft of the Virginia Constitution, the first such document of a state declaring their independence: “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”

That seems pretty clear until you add “within his own lands or tenements” to the sentence. It would seem Jefferson seriously considered that there should be some limitations on the individual’s right to gun ownership. It makes sense to own a gun for self-defense on your own property, but a different set of issues comes up when the gun is taken into public space.

Another quote by Jefferson used by gun rights advocates is: “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.” Here Jefferson states the basic principle behind rising up against the monarchy – while it’s harder to control and keep stable, a democratic society is preferable to being enslaved, though peacefully.

Is it more moral to live in a society where individual safety is not guaranteed and people often die due to gun violence versus living in a society where you have fewer freedoms, but greater safety for all individuals? Is perceived “freedom” more precious than safety?

Let’s also remember that Jefferson owned slaves and that his state would later help lead a rebellion against the United States over that issue. Lincoln did not believe that states had the right to armed rebellion against a democratically elected government or the right to secede from the union.

President Lincoln and the “United” States won both that argument and that war.

Guns are certainly useful in overthrowing monarchs, but is individual gun ownership the best way to oppose tyrants? If the primary reason to have a gun is to stop a potential dictator, what if people are organized into militias (as the founding fathers advocated). And these people had a well-guarded stockpile (armory) of guns and munitions instead of guns being out there in the public for any random person to use for purposes having nothing to do with stopping the tyrant?

James Madison actually supports a similar argument.

“Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”

He essentially believes that responsible citizens skilled in the use of guns who are able to organize into militias provide a barrier against dictatorship.

But George Washington saw limitations to the role of militias.

“Indeed, during the (Revolutionary) war he very frequently lamented the crimes carried out by armed civilians or undisciplined militia against their unarmed neighbors. The solution to these crimes, as he understood it, was to increase the power of the government and the army to prevent and punish them — not to put more guns in the hands of civilians.”

In fact, Washington sent state militias to counter the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, when Western Pennsylvania citizens led an armed conflict to fight a new whiskey tax. Washington saw the rebellion as being a concern to the central government and praised “citizen soldiers” for dealing with it.

Washington also said that:

“A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.”

Gun advocates only mention the first part of this quotation – “A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined”. It’s clear that Washington is again talking about soldiers and the need for them to be disciplined and organized, with a plan and concern for safety. He did not mean a country where guns are freely available in 24-hour megastores for purchase without restriction.

An example of a quote taken out of context on the gun issue, Ben Franklin said this:

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

While it appears to mean something else, this often-invoked quote is actually about taxes. It was about the legislatures right to impose a tax in the interest of collective security. It’s not about the gun issue at all.

This is an example of the danger of reading too much into the words of admittedly great, but long-since-dead people to address the modern issues we, the living, face.

It is safe to say the Founding Fathers definitely saw a role for guns in fighting against or avoiding tyranny (based on their own example and the weaponry available in their day). They also were not the unequivocal, loud gun rights advocates that some would like them to have been.

It is also clear that they did not completely agree on this and other issues as people would like you to believe. Our country, government, and constitution was based on the notion of compromise, not absolutes…