in 1755. Rather than being about the danger of oppressive/repressive (however the user defines those terms) laws aimed at individual civil rights, Franklin was concerned about the collective right of the people to self-govern (and protect themselves), versus the behind-the-scenes power of the wealthy. Perhaps a more modern translation would be "beware the 1%!". Or in other words, it was less about the king's laws and more about the king's friends.

That said, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to re-use or reapply a well-turned phrase or pithy quote. What would be an error would be to conclude that Franklin himself would support the modern application of the words; that on the basis of the quote he'd be saying "Fuck the NSA!" or "Down with gun control!" or "Hells yeah, I'll text while driving!" or whatever other 'essential liberty' is on the chopping block.

Maybe a better way of using that phrase currently would be to preface it: "As Benjamin Franklin once said in a completely different context, those who would..."