"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one."

- From Cesare Beccaria's Essay on Crimes and Punishments. Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of this work in the original Italian; he later purchased an English translation, published in London in 1809, which was sold to the Library of Congress.