Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf
Page Number: 64

Cite as:  554 U. S. ____ (2008) 

61 

Opinion of the Court 

hooligans.    The  Pennsylvania  law  to  which  JUSTICE 
BREYER  refers levied a fine of 5 shillings on one who fired 
a  gun  or  set  off  fireworks  in  Philadelphia  without  first
obtaining a license from the governor.  See Act of Aug. 26, 
1721, §4, in 3 Stat. at Large 253–254.  Given Justice Wil­
son’s explanation that the right to self-defense with arms 
was  protected  by  the  Pennsylvania  Constitution,  it  is
unlikely that this law (which in any event amounted to at 
most a licensing regime) would have been enforced against 
a  person  who  used  firearms  for  self-defense.    JUSTICE 
BREYER  cites  a  Rhode  Island  law  that  simply  levied  a  5­
shilling fine on those who fired guns in streets and taverns, 
a  law  obviously  inapplicable  to  this  case.  See  An  Act  for 
preventing Mischief being done in the town of Newport, or
in any other town in this Government, 1731, Rhode Island
Session Laws.  Finally, JUSTICE  BREYER points to a Mas­
sachusetts  law  similar  to  the  Pennsylvania  law,  prohibit­
ing “discharg[ing] any Gun or Pistol charged with Shot or 
Ball  in  the  Town  of  Boston.”  Act  of  May  28,  1746,  ch.  X,
Acts and  Laws of Mass. Bay 208.  It is again implausible 
that this would have been enforced against a citizen acting 
in self-defense, particularly given its preambulatory refer­
ence  to  “the  indiscreet  firing  of  Guns.”  Ibid.  (preamble)
(emphasis added).

A  broader  point  about  the  laws  that  JUSTICE  BREYER 
cites:  All  of  them  punished  the  discharge  (or  loading)  of
guns with a small fine and forfeiture of the weapon (or in a 
few  cases  a  very  brief  stay  in  the  local  jail),  not  with  sig­
nificant  criminal  penalties.29    They  are  akin  to  modern
penalties for minor public-safety infractions like speeding 

—————— 

29 The  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania  described  the  amount  of  five
shillings  in  a  contract  matter  in  1792  as  “nominal  consideration.” 
Morris’s Lessee v. Smith, 4 Dall. 119, 120 (Pa. 1792).  Many of the laws
cited punished violation with fine in a similar amount; the 1783 Massa­
chusetts gunpowder-storage law carried a somewhat larger fine of £10
(200 shillings) and forfeiture of the weapon.