Forty years ago, when the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual was to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.
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June 14, 1788, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adooption of the Federal Constitution, 2nd ed. (1861), Jonathan Elliot, v. 3, p. 380. (The "artful man" in the quote is Sir William Keith.) This quote has typically been rephrased by gun control opponents; for instance, "To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them."