The Great Argument

When the Constitution left Philadelphia in September 1787, it contained no bill of rights. Its supporters, the Federalists, argued that a list of rights was unnecessary because the new federal government would have only the powers the document granted it. Some even worried that listing certain rights could imply that anything left off the list was unprotected.

The Anti-Federalists saw it differently. They feared a strong central government with a standing army and control over the militia. Writers on their side, publishing under pen names in newspapers from Massachusetts to Virginia, warned that liberties not written down could be eroded. Several state ratifying conventions agreed, and they sent proposed amendments along with their votes to ratify.

Many of those proposals addressed arms and the militia. Conventions in states such as Virginia, New York and New Hampshire recommended language protecting the people's ability to keep and bear arms. New Hampshire's proposal was especially direct, stating that Congress should never disarm any citizen unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.

Even the Constitution's defenders conceded the point about an armed people. Federalist No. 46, published in January 1788 under the pen name Publius and attributed by historians to James Madison, argued that any federal army would be far outnumbered by citizens with arms, organized into state militias with locally chosen officers. It contrasted Americans with the subjects of European kingdoms, whose governments were afraid to trust the people with arms.

James Madison, who had initially been skeptical of a bill of rights, took up the task in the First Congress. He gathered the states' proposals, distilled them, and introduced a set of amendments in June 1789. After debate and revision in both houses, twelve amendments went to the states. Ten were ratified by December 1791 and became the Bill of Rights.

The final text of the Second Amendment reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Its wording reflects both camps. It speaks to the militia the Anti-Federalists wanted to preserve, and it secures a right of the people that the Federalists, in the end, agreed to write down.

The lesson for modern readers is that the Bill of Rights was not a gift handed down from above. It was the product of public argument, written pressure from the states and compromise in Congress. Citizens who wanted their rights in writing organized, published and persuaded, and they won.