Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-915_8o6b.pdf
Page Number: 95.0

24 

UNITED STATES v. RAHIMI 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

marks omitted)).  As treatises shortly before the founding
explain, “there may be an Assault which will not amount to
an Affray; as where it happens in a private Place, out of the
hearing or seeing of any, except the Parties concerned; in 
which Case it cannot be said to be to the Terror of the Peo-
ple.”  1 Hawkins, Pleas of the Crown, at 134; see 1 Burn, 
Justice of the Peace, at 13.  Affrays thus did not cover the 
very conduct §922(g)(8) seeks to prevent—interpersonal vi-
olence in the home. 

Second, affray laws did not impose a burden analogous to 
§922(g)(8).  They  regulated  a  niche  subset  of  Second
Amendment-protected  activity.    As  explained,  affray  laws
prohibited only carrying certain weapons (“dangerous and 
unusual”) in a particular manner (“terrifying the good peo-
ple of the land” without a need for self-defense) and in par-
ticular places (in public).  Meanwhile, §922(g)(8) prevents a 
covered person from carrying any firearm or ammunition,
in any manner, in any place, at any time, and for any rea-
son.  Section  922(g)(8)  thus  bans  all  Second  Amendment-
protected  activity.    Indeed,  this  Court  has  already  con-
cluded that affray laws do not impose a burden “analogous 
to the burden created by” an effective ban on public carry. 
Bruen, 597 U. S., at 50.  Surely, then, a law that imposes a 
public and private ban on a covered individual cannot have 
an analogous burden either.

The Court counters that since affray laws “provided for 
imprisonment,”  they 
lesser  burden  than 
imposed  a 
§922(g)(8)’s disarmament.  Ante, at 14.  But, that argument
serves  only  to  highlight  another  fundamental  difference:
Affray laws were criminal statutes that penalized past be-
havior, whereas §922(g)(8) is triggered by a civil restraining 
order that seeks to prevent future behavior.  Accordingly,
an  affray’s  burden  was  vastly  harder  to  impose.    To  im-
prison a person, a State had to prove that he committed the
crime of affray beyond a reasonable doubt.  The Constitu-