Cesare Beccaria and Gun Control Laws: From 1764

“False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that it has no remedy for evils, except destruction.

The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are of such a nature.

Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

~Cesare Beccaria (Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria-Bonesana) From his treatise "On Crimes and Punishments" (1764)

Even in 1764, common sense was prominent.