<P> The primary author of the United States Bill of Rights, James Madison, considered them--including a right to keep and bear arms--to be "fundamental ." In 1788, he wrote: "The political truths declared in that solemn manner acquire by degrees the character of fundamental maxims of free Government, and as they become incorporated with the national sentiment, counteract the impulses of interest and passion ." </P> <P> The view that gun ownership is a fundamental right was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008). The Court stated: "By the time of the founding, the right to have arms had become fundamental for English subjects ." The Court observed that the English Bill of Rights of 1689 had listed a right to arms as one of the fundamental rights of Englishmen . However, it should be noted that human rights law neither recognizes a right to firearms nor a human right to self - defense, but requires states instead to reasonably regulate and restrict the possession and use of firearms to protect the right to life . </P> <P> When the Court interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), it looked to the year 1868, when the amendment was ratified, and said that most states had provisions in their constitutions explicitly protecting this right . The Court concluded: "It is clear that the Framers and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty ." </P> <P> The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted on December 15, 1791, states: </P>

When was the last time a gun law was passed