Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf
Page Number: 78.0

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

11 

STEVENS, J., dissenting 

First  and  Second  Amendments  are  the  same  in  referring
to  a  collective  activity.    By  way  of  contrast,  the  Fourth
Amendment describes a right against governmental inter­
ference  rather  than  an  affirmative  right  to  engage  in
protected  conduct,  and  so  refers  to  a  right  to  protect  a
purely  individual  interest.  As  used  in  the  Second 
Amendment,  the  words  “the  people”  do  not  enlarge  the 
right  to  keep  and  bear  arms  to  encompass  use  or  owner­
ship  of  weapons  outside  the  context  of  service  in  a  well-
regulated militia. 

“To keep and bear Arms” 

Although  the  Court’s  discussion  of  these  words  treats 
them  as  two  “phrases”—as  if  they  read  “to  keep”  and  “to
bear”—they  describe  a  unitary  right:  to  possess  arms  if
needed  for military  purposes  and  to  use  them  in  conjunc­
tion with military activities.

As  a  threshold  matter,  it  is  worth  pausing  to  note  an
oddity  in  the  Court’s  interpretation  of  “to  keep  and  bear
arms.”  Unlike  the  Court  of  Appeals,  the  Court  does  not
read  that  phrase  to  create  a  right  to  possess  arms  for 
“lawful, private purposes.”  Parker v. District of Columbia, 
478 F. 3d 370, 382 (CADC 2007).  Instead, the Court limits 
the  Amendment’s  protection  to  the  right  “to  possess  and
carry  weapons  in  case  of  confrontation.”    Ante,  at  19.  No 
party  or  amicus  urged  this  interpretation;  the  Court  ap­
pears  to  have  fashioned  it  out  of  whole  cloth.    But  al­
though  this  novel  limitation  lacks  support  in  the  text  of 
the  Amendment,  the  Amendment’s  text  does  justify  a 
different  limitation:  the  “right  to  keep  and  bear  arms”
protects  only  a  right  to  possess  and  use  firearms  in  con­
nection with service in a state-organized militia. 

The  term  “bear  arms”  is  a  familiar  idiom;  when  used 
unadorned  by  any  additional  words,  its  meaning  is  “to 
serve  as  a  soldier,  do  military  service,  fight.”    1  Oxford 
English  Dictionary  634  (2d  ed.  1989).    It  is  derived  from