![]() ![]() It does not appear to date back much further than its publication in a 1989 pro-Second Amendment newspaper column by Charlie Reese, and it is certainly not found among Jefferson's recorded writings, letters, or speeches: The sentence "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government" appears to be a modern augmentation. Subsequent drafts included the bracketed qualifier that "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms ." Although this sentence did not find its way into the final version of the Virginia state constitution, it is documented in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. The phrase "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms" shows up in a draft of a proposed Virginia constitution in 1776.
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