When Was the Second Amendment Ratified?

Key Dates at a Glance

1789: Madison's Proposal and Congressional Passage

Several state ratifying conventions had approved the Constitution in 1787–1788 only on the understanding that a bill of rights would follow. Virginia, New York, New Hampshire, and others submitted lists of proposed amendments, and a right to bear arms appeared repeatedly among them.

On June 8, 1789, in the First Congress, Madison introduced a set of amendments drawn from those state proposals. His original arms provision read:

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person."

Madison proposed inserting the provisions into the body of the Constitution. The House instead adopted Roger Sherman's suggestion to append them as separate articles. During the House and Senate revisions, the clauses were reordered so that the militia clause came first, the phrase "well armed" was dropped, "free country" became "free State," and the conscientious-objector clause was struck by the Senate.

On September 25, 1789, Congress approved twelve articles of amendment and transmitted them to the states. Because the first two articles (on congressional apportionment and congressional pay) were not ratified at the time, the article listed fourth became the Second Amendment.

For the surrounding debates, see the Founding Era section of the timeline and Federalist No. 46, Madison's own 1788 discussion of an armed citizenry.

1789–1791: State Ratification in Order

Article V requires approval by three-fourths of the states. When Congress sent out the amendments there were eleven states in the Union; North Carolina (November 1789), Rhode Island (May 1790), and Vermont (March 1791) joined during the ratification period, raising the total to fourteen and the required number to eleven. The states ratified what became the Second Amendment in the following order:

Three of the original states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Georgia — did not complete ratification in the 1790s. All three ratified the Bill of Rights symbolically in 1939, on its 150th anniversary. Their votes were not needed: the amendment had been in force since 1791.

Why December 15, 1791 Is the Date

A constitutional amendment takes effect the moment the last necessary state ratifies it; no further federal act is required. Virginia's vote on December 15, 1791 was the eleventh of fourteen, so that is the date on which the Second Amendment — along with the other nine amendments that make up the Bill of Rights — became part of the Constitution. Jefferson's circular letter of March 1, 1792 announcing the adoption was a notification, not the effective date.

What Happened After Ratification

Ratification settled the text but not its meaning. The important later dates are:

• 1792 — The Militia Act of 1792 requires most free white men aged 18 to 45 to enroll in the militia and furnish their own musket or rifle. See the full list of federal Militia Acts from 1792 to 1903.
• 1868 — The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified, later becoming the vehicle for applying the Second Amendment to the states.
• 1939 — United States v. Miller, the Supreme Court's principal Second Amendment ruling for nearly seventy years.
• 2008 — District of Columbia v. Heller holds that the amendment protects an individual right unconnected to militia service.
• 2010 — McDonald v. City of Chicago holds that the right is fundamental and binds the states.
• 2022 — NYSRPA v. Bruen establishes the text, history, and tradition test.

The full historical timeline covers these and other events from 1689 to the present.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was the Second Amendment written?

Madison drafted it in the spring of 1789 and introduced it on June 8, 1789. The final wording was settled by a House–Senate conference in September 1789.

When was the Second Amendment passed?

Congress passed it, with the other eleven proposed articles, on September 25, 1789. "Passed" and "ratified" are different steps: Congress proposes; the states ratify.

When did the Second Amendment go into effect?

December 15, 1791, the date of Virginia's ratification.

Has the Second Amendment ever been changed?

No. The 27-word text ratified in 1791 has never been amended or repealed. Interpretation has changed — see the Second Amendment explained for how courts read it today.

When did the Supreme Court hold that the right is fundamental and applies to the states?

June 28, 2010, in McDonald v. City of Chicago. See incorporation doctrine.

Was the U.S. Constitution the first to protect a right to arms?

No. The English Bill of Rights of 1689 protected the right of Protestant subjects to "have Arms for their Defence," and several state constitutions — beginning with Pennsylvania's in 1776 — protected a right to bear arms before the federal amendment. See the English origins on the timeline.