Patrick henry made this statement in his speech at the virginia ratifying convention. the purpose of the speech was to explain why he opposed ratifying the constitution without a bill of rights. a to support the idea that congress would be better at managing a military than the people would b to support the idea that the people need a right to bear arms as a means of defending themselves c to emphasize the importance of state militias in international conflicts d to emphasize that congress would be poor at managing a national military