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Was doing some research on the history of the 2nd amendment. Found the following comments about the individual states ratification process very interesting.

THE HISTORY OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT
David E. Vandercoy

Baron Von Steuben, Washington’s Inspector General, had already proposed such a force.[164] The fear was that creation of a select militia, armed by and loyal to the federal government, would be accompanied by disarmament of the people in general.

V. The Ratification Process

The State Conventions

In Pennsylvania, James Wilson argued against adding a bill of rights on grounds already offered by Madison,[170] that such an enumeration was unnecessary and indeed dangerous since no person could enumerate all the rights of men.[171]

Pennsylvania ratified, but a substantial minority drafted a series of proposed amendments that included the following:
That the people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves and their own State or the United States, or for the purpose of killing game; and no law shall be passed disarming the people or any of them unless for crimes committed, or real danger of public injury from individuals.[172]

It is doubtful that the Pennsylvania minority was attempting to constitutionalize hunting as a sport.[173] Rather, the delegates were attempting to eliminate the possibility that game laws, used effectively in England at different points to disarm the population, would not produce a similar result in America.

Samuel Adams made similar arguments in Massachusetts.[174] The argument that adoption must precede amendment prevailed.[175] In Virginia, Madison secured ratification, but George Mason, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee were successful in having the convention adopt a Declaration of Rights which was to be recommended to the First Congress for adoption as constitutional amendments.[176] The right of the people to keep and bear arms (p.1031)was included as was the statement that a militia composed of the body of the people was the natural and safe defense of a free state.[177]

North Carolina’s convention proposed that a declaration of rights be added to the Constitution which explicitly identified the right of people to keep and bear arms as a natural right and one of the means necessary to the pursuit and obtainment of happiness and safety.[178] Identification of the right was accompanied by the statement that the militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the natural and safe defense of a free state.[179]

The North Carolina convention refused to ratify the Constitution until the document included this and other rights.[180] North Carolina did not ratify the Constitution until the Bill of Rights was drafted and submitted to the States.[181] Rhode Island followed an identical course by identifying the right of the people to keep and bear arms as a natural right, among others, and declining to ratify the Constitution until after the Bill of Rights had been drafted and submitted.[182]

To summarize the state ratification process, three states, New York, New Hampshire, and Virginia, ratified while expressing their understanding that the people had a right to bear arms and that Congress would never disarm law abiding citizens.[183]

Two states, North Carolina and Rhode Island, refused to ratify until individual rights, including the people’s right to keep and bear arms, (p.1032)were recognized by amendments.[184]

In Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, an effort was made to amend or condition ratification on amendment to include, among others, the right to keep and bear arms.[185] Efforts to amend were defeated but not on the merits. There is no evidence from any state convention that any speaker suggested that the proposed Constitution would permit disarming the public.

For footnotes and references: http://www.guncite.com/journals/vandhist.html