Comment on Timothy Johnson: Conservative Media's Spurious Thomas Jefferson Gun Quote Becomes Ben Carson Talking Point

Timothy Johnson: Conservative Media's Spurious Thomas Jefferson Gun Quote Becomes Ben Carson Talking Point

A quotation popular in conservative media circles that allegedly demonstrates Thomas Jefferson opposed the regulation of firearms was repeated by GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson when he was asked on Fox News to react to the October 1 mass shooting at Umpqua Community College. The quote, however, has been identified as "spurious" by research compiled by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. When asked by Fox News host Neil Cavuto whether or not the regulation of firearms offers a solution to mass shootings on the October 5 broadcast of Your World with Neil Cavuto, Carson claimed, "Thomas Jefferson himself said, 'Gun control works great for the people who are law-abiding citizens and it does nothing for the criminals, and all it does is put the people at risk.'" Carson was likely misattributing the following quote, which was written by Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria and copied by Jefferson into a journal: Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

 

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