Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf
Page Number: 29.0

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

23 

Opinion of the Court 

III 
Having  made  the  constitutional  standard  endorsed  in 
Heller  more  explicit,  we  now  apply  that  standard  to  New 
York’s proper-cause requirement. 

A 
It is undisputed that petitioners Koch and Nash—two or-
dinary, law-abiding, adult citizens—are part of “the people” 
whom  the  Second  Amendment  protects.  See  Heller,  554 
U. S.,  at  580.    Nor  does  any  party  dispute  that  handguns
are  weapons  “in  common  use”  today  for  self-defense.  See 
id.,  at  627;  see  also  Caetano,  577  U. S.,  at  411–412.    We 
therefore  turn  to  whether  the  plain  text  of  the  Second
Amendment protects Koch’s and Nash’s proposed course of 
conduct—carrying handguns publicly for self-defense. 

We have little difficulty concluding that it does.  Respond-
ents do not dispute this.  See Brief for Respondents 19.  Nor 
could they.  Nothing in the Second Amendment’s text draws
a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep 
and bear arms.  As we explained in Heller, the “textual ele-
ments” of the Second Amendment’s operative clause— “the
right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be in-
fringed”—“guarantee  the  individual  right  to  possess  and 
carry weapons in case of confrontation.”  554 U. S., at 592. 
Heller further confirmed that the right to “bear arms” refers
to the right to “wear, bear, or carry . . . upon the person or
in the clothing or in a pocket, for the purpose . . . of being 
armed and ready for offensive or defensive action in a case 
of conflict with another person.”  Id., at 584 (quoting Mus-
carello  v.  United  States,  524  U. S.  125,  143  (1998)  (Gins-
burg, J., dissenting); internal quotation marks omitted).

This  definition  of  “bear”  naturally  encompasses  public 
carry.  Most gun owners do not wear a holstered pistol at
their hip in their bedroom or while sitting at the dinner ta-
ble.    Although  individuals  often  “keep”  firearms  in  their
home, at the ready for self-defense, most do not “bear” (i.e.,