evidence: In October of 1824, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison attended a board meeting of the University of Virginia, which would open the following spring. Jefferson and Madison had spent not a little time thinking about individual liberties. But minutes from the meeting show that their new school would not extend the right to bear arms to its red-brick grounds. [...] Many quotes about the relationship of private firearm ownership and freedom—often deployed online by gun rights proponents—have been misattributed to Jefferson, or misconstrued. Jefferson is widely credited with saying, "The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it," but archivists at Monticello have found no evidence he made this statement. He is on record has having written, "Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks" in a letter to his nephew. But historian Saul Cornell thinks Jefferson was most likely contemplating slave rebellion, not the need for self defense from criminals.