"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government" - George Washington
There are two problems with this quote (which I saw on Facebook).
First, George Washington never said it. Here is what he said: “A free people ought not only 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 on others, for essential,
particularly for military supplies."
Second, did George have
assault rifles? I don’t really think
George Washington would be opposed to reasonable gun control legislation, but
we aren’t ever going to know. He’s been
dead a mighty long time. He died before
cars, before planes, before machine guns, before decolonization, before the
bulk of colonization, before the end of slavery, before women could vote, and …
well … before a heck of a lot of other stuff.
The bottom line is, I’m
not going to be too bowled over by a pro-gun control quote from over two
hundred years ago, even if it is accurate … and this one isn’t. What I’m more concerned with are all the
folks who die from gun violence every year in this country. What I’m more concerned with is why we don’t
have reasonable comprehensive and effective gun regulations in this country …
and why anyone would oppose them. What I’m
much more concerned with is why we can’t get serious about this problem and
stop hiding behind inaccurate quotes and statistics.
We do know that a lot of
folks die every year in our country from gun violence. We also know that reasonable regulation of
the ownership of guns can be achieved without taking away anyone’s right to own
a gun. I’m also fairly certain you can
hunt without an AK-47. I am 100% sure that
lying about what George Washington said won’t help anyone.
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