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Page Number: 91

24 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER 

STEVENS, J., dissenting 

Finally, after the delegates at the Massachusetts Ratifi­
cation Convention had compiled a list of proposed amend­
ments  and  alterations,  a  motion  was  made  to  add  to  the 
list  the  following  language:  “[T]hat  the  said  Constitution
never  be  construed  to  authorize  Congress  to  . . .  prevent 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  who  are  peaceable  citi­
zens,  from  keeping  their  own  arms.”    Cogan  181.  This 
motion,  however,  failed  to  achieve  the  necessary  support,
and  the  proposal  was  excluded  from  the  list  of  amend­
ments the State sent to Congress.  2 Schwartz 674–675. 

Madison,  charged  with  the  task  of  assembling  the  pro­
posals  for  amendments  sent  by  the  ratifying  States,  was
the  principal  draftsman  of  the  Second  Amendment.23    He  
had  before  him,  or  at  the  very  least  would  have  been
aware of, all of these proposed formulations.  In addition, 
Madison  had  been  a  member,  some  years  earlier,  of  the 
committee  tasked  with  drafting  the  Virginia  Declaration 
of  Rights.  That  committee  considered  a  proposal  by  Tho­
mas  Jefferson  that  would  have  included  within  the  Vir­
ginia  Declaration  the  following  language:  “No  freeman 
shall  ever  be  debarred  the  use  of  arms  [within  his  own
lands  or  tenements].”  1  Papers  of  Thomas  Jefferson  363 
(J.  Boyd  ed.  1950).  But  the  committee  rejected  that  lan­
guage,  adopting  instead  the  provision  drafted  by  George
Mason.24 

—————— 

23 Madison explained in a letter to Richard Peters, Aug. 19, 1789, the
paramount  importance  of  preparing  a  list  of  amendments  to  placate 
those  States  that  had  ratified  the  Constitution  in  reliance  on  a  com­
mitment  that  amendments  would  follow:  “In  many  States  the  [Consti­
tution] was adopted under a tacit compact in [favor] of some subsequent
provisions  on  this  head.    In  [Virginia].    It  would  have  been  certainly
rejected,  had  no  assurances  been  given  by  its  advocates  that  such
provisions would be pursued.  As an honest man I feel my self bound by 
this  consideration.”  Creating  the  Bill  of  Rights  281,  282  (H.  Veit,  K. 
Bowling, & C. Bickford eds. 1991) (hereinafter Veit). 

24 The  adopted  language,  Virginia  Declaration  of  Rights  ¶13  (1776),
read as follows: “That a well-regulated Militia, composed of the body of