• tal@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    Strictly speaking, given that I assume that this is referring to the Second Amendment, the image should probably be of the Bill of Rights; that was not part of the original US Consitution depicted.

    Though the Constitution had been ratified under the understanding that there would be such a bill of rights coming, and I suppose that maybe one could indirectly attach it to the original Constitution in that sense.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

    In December 1787 and January 1788, five states—Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut—ratified the Constitution with relative ease, though the bitter minority report of the Pennsylvania opposition was widely circulated. In contrast to its predecessors, the Massachusetts convention was angry and contentious, at one point erupting into a fistfight between Federalist delegate Francis Dana and Anti-Federalist Elbridge Gerry when the latter was not allowed to speak. The impasse was resolved only when revolutionary heroes and leading Anti-Federalists Samuel Adams and John Hancock agreed to ratification on the condition that the convention also propose amendments. The convention’s proposed amendments included a requirement for grand jury indictment in capital cases, which would form part of the Fifth Amendment, and an amendment reserving powers to the states not expressly given to the federal government, which would later form the basis for the Tenth Amendment.