On this date 232 years ago today

On this date 232 years ago today, the Constitution was signed in Philadelphia.  Article VII of the Constitution stipulated that nine states had to ratify the Constitution for it to be effective.  It took roughly ten months for nine states to ratify the constitution.  When ratified, the constitution has not bill of rights, it had no second amendment.

While nine states had ratified, three large states held out, the state of Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts.  These states combined held roughly a third of the population of what was to become the United States.

 A bill of rights was first proposed by Massachusetts, and ultimately a deal was reached with hold-out states and the Federalists (Madison, Hamilton) promised that the first order of business of the new government would be to adopt what was to become the bill of rights.

 The wording of the second amendment, part of the bill of rights, borrowed the wording from some of the constitutions of the original thirteen colonies.  In some cases, the wording was nearly identical.  Virginia clause read: “That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free State; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.”  In 1971, the phrase “therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed;” was added to Article I, section 13.