Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf
Page Number: 130.0

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

47 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

which were even more restrictive than their predecessors.
See S. Cornell & J. Florence, The Right to Bear Arms in the 
Era of the Fourteenth Amendment: Gun Rights or Gun Reg-
ulation?  50  Santa  Clara  L.  Rev.  1043,  1066  (2010).    Most 
notably,  many  States  and  Western  Territories  enacted 
stringent regulations that prohibited any public carriage of
firearms, with only limited exceptions.  For example, Texas
made it a misdemeanor to carry in public “any pistol, dirk,
dagger,  slung-shot,  sword-cane,  spear,  brass-knuckles, 
bowie-knife, or any other kind of knife manufactured or sold 
for  the  purpose  of  offense  or  defense”  absent  “reasonable
grounds for fearing an [immediate and pressing] unlawful
attack.”  1871 Tex. Gen. Laws ch. 34, §1.  Similarly, New
Mexico  made  it  “unlawful  for  any  person  to  carry  deadly
weapons,  either  concealed  or  otherwise,  on  or  about  their 
persons  within  any  of  the  settlements  of  this  Territory.”
1869 Terr. of N. M. Laws ch. 32, §1.  New Mexico’s prohibi-
tion contained only narrow exceptions for carriage on a per-
son’s own property, for self-defense in the face of immediate 
danger, or with official authorization.  Ibid.  Other States 
and Territories adopted similar laws.  See, e.g., 1875 Wyo.
Terr. Sess. Laws ch. 52, §1; 1889 Idaho Terr. Gen. Laws §1,
p. 23;  1881  Kan.  Sess.  Laws  §23,  p.  92;  1889  Ariz.  Terr.
Sess. Laws no. 13, §1, p. 16. 

When  they  were  challenged,  these  laws  were  generally
upheld.  P. Charles, The Faces of the Second Amendment 
Outside the Home, Take Two: How We Got Here and Why 
It  Matters,  64  Clev.  St.  L.  Rev.  373,  414  (2016);  see  also 
ante, at 56–57 (majority opinion) (recognizing that postbel-
lum Texas law and court decisions support the validity of
New  York’s  licensing  regime);  Andrews,  50  Tenn.,  at  182 
(recognizing that “a man may well be prohibited from car-
rying his arms to church, or other public assemblage,” and 
that the carriage of arms other than rifles, shot guns, mus-
kets,  and  repeaters  “may  be  prohibited  if  the  Legislature