Those rights were set forth in a number of documents, including the Magna Carta and the English Declaration of Rights.One of these was the right of the common people to bear arms, which was specifically recognized in the English Declaration of Rights of 1689.However, the Founders also recognized that without a blueprint for what powers government could exercise, the rights of the people would always be subject to being violated.In constructing the Bill of Rights, Madison followed the recommendations of the state ratifying conventions.Though they ratified the Constitution, several of those conventions had recommended adding provisions about specific rights.They and their contemporaries were firearm owners, hunters and in some cases gun collectors (George Washington and Thomas Jefferson exchanged letters about their collections).They had just finished winning their freedoms with gun in hand, and would, in their next session, pass legislation requiring most male citizens to buy and own at least one firearm and 30 rounds of ammunition.Eleven years later, after the war for independence had been won, our Founders assembled once again to draw up a plan for governing the new nation.That plan would be ratified two years later as the Constitution of the United States of America.When the first Congress penned the Second Amendment in 1789, it took the wording, with some style changes, from a list of rights introduced by James Madison of Virginia.Congressman Madison had promised the Virginia ratifying convention that he would sponsor a Bill of Rights if the Constitution were ratified.
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