Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf
Page Number: 45.0

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

39 

Opinion of the Court 

time,” as opposed to those that “are highly unusual in soci-
ety  at  large.”  Ibid.  (internal  quotation  marks  omitted).
Whatever  the  likelihood  that  handguns  were  considered 
“dangerous  and  unusual”  during  the  colonial  period,  they
are  indisputably  in  “common  use”  for  self-defense  today. 
They are, in fact, “the quintessential self-defense weapon.” 
Id., at 629.  Thus, even if these colonial laws prohibited the 
carrying  of  handguns  because  they  were  considered  “dan-
gerous and unusual weapons” in the 1690s, they provide no
justification for laws restricting the public carry of weapons 
that are unquestionably in common use today.

The third statute invoked by respondents was enacted in
East New Jersey in 1686.  It prohibited the concealed carry 
of  “pocket  pistol[s]”  or  other  “unusual  or  unlawful  weap-
ons,” and it further prohibited “planter[s]” from carrying all
pistols  unless  in  military  service  or,  if  “strangers,”  when 
traveling  through  the  Province.    An  Act  Against  Wearing
Swords,  &c.,  ch.  9,  in  Grants,  Concessions,  and  Original 
Constitutions  of  the  Province  of  New  Jersey  290  (2d  ed. 
1881) (Grants and Concessions).  These restrictions do not 
meaningfully support respondents.  The law restricted only
concealed carry, not all public carry, and its restrictions ap-
plied only to certain “unusual or unlawful weapons,” includ-
ing “pocket pistol[s].”  Ibid.  It also did not apply to all pis-
tols,  let  alone  all  firearms.  “Pocket  pistols”  had  barrel
lengths of perhaps 3 or 4 inches, far smaller than the 6-inch
to  14-inch  barrels  found  on  the  other  belt  and  hip  pistols
that were commonly used for lawful purposes in the 1600s.  
J. George, English Pistols and Revolvers 16 (1938); see also, 
e.g., 14 Car. 2 c. 3, §20 (1662); H. Peterson, Arms and Armor 
in  Colonial  America,  1526–1783,  p. 208  (1956)  (Peterson). 
Moreover,  the  law  prohibited  only  the  concealed  carry  of 
pocket pistols; it presumably did not by its terms touch the