December 15 is now known as "Bill of Rights Day," a day on which we celebrate the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, which were in place by 1791. However, most freedom-loving Americans that rest on these rights are unaware of the deliberations that went into finalizing the language for what we now know as the Second Amendment. In fact, if it weren't for the persistence of Founding Father James Madison, it might not have been able to stand the test of time and its numerous challenges.
As NRA's American Rifleman published in its March 1991 issue, "Madison's lonely struggle, against indifferent opposition, yielded one of the greatest documents of liberty ever written. Madison's prediction that the Amendments "will have a salutary tendency" has echoed through the centuries. To fully appreciate the negotiation of semantics that went into guarding our cherished right—granted to us by our Creator, and protected today by your NRA—read the full story.
