PSEUDOHISTORY: Did George Washington really say, "When government takes away citizens' right to bear arms it becomes citizens' duty to take away government's right to govern."

Did George Washington really say, "When government takes away citizens' right to bear arms it becomes citizens' duty to take away government's right to govern."

First, this is not a polemic for or against gun control. I'll save my thoughts on that for a different time and place. I'm merely asking if this common meme is true, correct, and historically sound. Did George Washington say this?

Apparently not. Let's start with the most authoritative, politically unbiased source I could find.  Mount Vernon (George Washington's home) and his Presidential library and their website, https://www.mountvernon.org/



From https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/spurious-quotations/  :

"When government takes away citizens' right to bear arms it becomes citizens' duty to take away government's right to govern."

The library has yet to find an explanation for this misquote or a similar quote of Washington's that was confused for this statement.

This is further supported by Snopes that began with the same source and then did their own additional research.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/george-washington-arms-quote/

An organization called Politifact concurred but then went on to discuss Washington's attitudes on guns in general.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/feb/20/facebook-posts/did-george-washington-offer-support-individual-gun/

In conclusion, it appears that George Washington did not say this. There is no evidence that he did and the quote does not appear to date back to anywhere near the time he lived.