Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf
Page Number: 80

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

13 

STEVENS, J., dissenting 

ence  to  civilian  uses  of  weapons  tailors  the  text  of  the
Amendment  to  the  purpose  identified  in  its  preamble.10 

—————— 

The Court allows that the phrase “bear Arms” did have as an idiomatic
meaning, “ ‘to serve as a soldier, do military service, fight,’ ” ante, at 12, 
but  asserts  that  it  “unequivocally  bore  that  idiomatic  meaning  only 
when followed by the preposition ‘against,’ which was in turn followed
by  the  target  of  the  hostilities,”  ante,  at  12–13.  But  contemporary 
sources  make  clear  that  the  phrase  “bear  arms”  was  often  used  to 
convey a military meaning without those additional words.  See, e.g., To 
The  Printer,  Providence  Gazette,  (May  27,  1775)  (“By  the  common
estimate of three millions of people in America, allowing one in five to 
bear arms, there will be found 600,000 fighting men”); Letter of Henry
Laurens to the Mass. Council (Jan. 21, 1778), in Letters of Delegates to
Congress  1774–1789,  p.  622  (P.  Smith  ed.  1981)  (“Congress  were
yesterday  informed  . . .  that  those  Canadians  who  returned  from
Saratoga  . . .  had  been  compelled  by  Sir  Guy  Carleton  to  bear  Arms”); 
Of  the  Manner  of  Making  War  among  the  Indians  of  North-America,
Connecticut Courant (May 23, 1785) (“The Indians begin to bear arms
at the age of fifteen, and lay them aside when they arrive at the age of
sixty.    Some  nations  to  the  southward,  I  have  been  informed,  do  not 
continue  their  military  exercises  after  they  are  fifty”);  28  Journals  of
the  Continental  Congress  1030  (G.  Hunt  ed.  1910)  (“That  hostages  be
mutually  given  as  a  security  that  the  Convention  troops  and  those 
received in exchange for them do not bear arms prior to the first day of 
May next”); H. R. J., 9th Cong., 1st Sess., 217 (Feb. 12, 1806) (“Whereas
the commanders of British armed vessels have impressed many Ameri­
can  seamen,  and  compelled  them  to  bear  arms  on  board  said  vessels, 
and  assist  in  fighting  their  battles  with  nations  in  amity  and  peace
with  the  United  States”);  H. R. J.,  15th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  182–183  (Jan.
14, 1819) (“[The petitioners] state that they were residing in the British
province  of  Canada,  at  the  commencement  of  the  late  war,  and  that
owing  to  their  attachment  to  the  United  States,  they  refused  to  bear 
arms, when called upon by the British authorities . . .”). 

10 Aymette v. State, 21 Tenn. 154, 156 (1840), a case we cited in Miller, 
further confirms this reading of the phrase.  In Aymette, the Tennessee 
Supreme Court construed the guarantee in Tennessee’s 1834 Constitu­
tion  that  “ ‘the  free  white  men  of  this  State,  have  a  right  to  keep  and
bear  arms  for  their  common  defence.’ ”    Explaining  that  the  provision
was adopted with the same goals as the Federal Constitution’s Second 
Amendment, the court wrote: “The words ‘bear arms’ . . . have reference 
to  their  military  use,  and  were  not  employed  to  mean  wearing  them 
about the person as part of the dress.  As the object for which the right