The Famous Pro-Gun "Quotes" the Founding Fathers Never Actually Said

[Jazzy]

"1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms!" an unhinged Alex Jones once screamed at a slightly more-hinged Piers Morgan. Jonesies—who've gone all in for Cliven Bundy—love to cite America's founders to defend their gun caresses. Usually, they get it wrong.

Sure, the elite landed intellectuals who laid America's groundwork saw the usefulness of their age's rudimentary firearms. But their views on guns were complicated and narrow, with nuances that don't fit easily on Second Amendment absolutists' bumper stickers.

As gun-toters and their industry-funded lobby have simplified and meme-ified their arguments, they've simplified our view of the founding fathers, too—usually with distorted or fabricated quotes that give historians paroxysms. Here are some of the gunners' greatest mythical quotations, along with their nutty origins.

Comments?

 

[DrLeftover]

There is one famous gun control quote that was definitely said by the person to whom it is attributed.


"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas."
- Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1973)

 

[Evil Eye]

Stalin was on to something.