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18  NEW YORK STATE RIFLE & PISTOL ASSN., INC. v. BRUEN 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

carriage  outright,  26  States  had  “may  issue”  licensing  re-
gimes, 7 States had “shall issue” regimes, and 1 State (Ver-
mont) allowed concealed carriage  without a permit.  Con-
gressional Research Service, Gun Control: Concealed Carry 
Legislation in the 115th Congress 1 (Jan. 30, 2018).  Thus, 
it  has  only  been  in  the  last  few  decades  that  States  have
shifted  toward  “shall  issue”  licensing  laws.    Prior  to  that, 
most States operated “may issue” licensing regimes without 
legal or practical problem.

Moreover, even considering, as the Court does, only the
present state of play, its tally provides an incomplete pic-
ture because it accounts for only the number of States with
“may issue” regimes, not the number of people governed by 
those regimes.  By the Court’s count, the seven “may issue” 
jurisdictions are New York, California, Hawaii, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia. 
Ante, at 5–6.  Together, these seven jurisdictions comprise 
about 84.4 million people and account for over a quarter of 
the country’s population.  U. S. Census Bureau, 2020 Pop- 
ulation  and  Housing  State  Data  (Aug.  12,  2021)  (2020 
Population), https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/
interactive/2020-population-and-housing-state-data.html.  
Thus, “may issue” laws can hardly be described as a mar-
ginal or outdated regime.

And there are good reasons why these seven jurisdictions 
may have chosen not to follow other States in shifting to-
ward “shall issue” regimes.  The seven remaining “may is-
sue” jurisdictions are among the most densely populated in 
the United States: the District of Columbia (with an aver-
age  of  11,280.0  people/square  mile  in  2020),  New  Jersey 
(1,263.0),  Massachusetts  (901.2),  Maryland  (636.1),  New
York (428.7), California (253.7), and Hawaii (226.6).  U. S. 
Census Bureau, Historical Population Density (1910–2020)
(Apr.  26,  2001),  https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-
series/dec/density-data-text.html.  In comparison, the aver-
age population density of the United States as a whole is