Crimes are more effectually prevented by the certainty than the severity of punishment

Laws against the possession of weapons only disarm those who have no intention of committing a crime.

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 has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

Happy is the nation without a history.

Crimes are more effectually prevented by the certainty than the severity of punishment

The laws that forbid the carrying of arms... serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

The fault no child ever loses is the one he was most punished for.