Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf
Page Number: 67.0

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

61 

Opinion of the Court 

at 229 (explaining that the meaning of ambiguous constitu-
tional provisions can be “liquidated and ascertained by a se-
ries of particular discussions and adjudications” (emphasis
added)).

Finally, these territorial restrictions deserve little weight
because  they  were—consistent  with  the  transitory  nature
of territorial government—short lived.  Some were held un-
constitutional  shortly  after  passage.    See  In re  Brickey,  8 
Idaho 597, 70 P. 609 (1902).  Others did not survive a Ter-
ritory’s admission to the Union as a State.  See Wyo. Rev.
Stat., ch. 3, §5051 (1899) (1890 law enacted upon statehood 
prohibiting public carry only when combined with “intent, 
or avowed purpose, of injuring [one’s] fellow-man”).  Thus, 
they appear more as passing regulatory efforts by not-yet-
mature jurisdictions on the way to statehood, rather than
part of an enduring American tradition of state regulation. 
Beyond these Territories, respondents identify one West-
ern State—Kansas—that instructed cities with more than 
15,000 inhabitants to pass ordinances prohibiting the pub-
lic  carry  of  firearms.    See  1881  Kan.  Sess.  Laws  §§1,  23,
pp. 79, 92.31  By 1890, the only cities meeting the population 
threshold  were  Kansas  City,  Topeka,  and  Wichita.  See 
Compendium  of  the  Eleventh  Census:  1890,  at  442–452. 
Even  if  each  of  these  three  cities  enacted  prohibitions  by 
1890, their combined population (93,000) accounted for only 
6.5%  of  Kansas’  total  population.  Ibid.  Although  other
Kansas cities may also have restricted public carry unilat-
erally,32  the  lone  late-19th-century  state  law  respondents 
—————— 

31 In 1875, Arkansas prohibited the public carry of all pistols.  See 1875 
Ark. Acts p. 156, §1.  But this categorical prohibition was also short lived.
About  six  years  later,  Arkansas  exempted  “pistols  as  are  used  in  the 
army or navy of the United States,” so long as they were carried “uncov-
ered, and in [the] hand.”  1881 Ark. Acts p. 191, no. 96, §§1, 2. 

32 In 1879, Salina, Kansas, prohibited the carry of pistols but broadly
exempted “cases when any person carrying [a pistol] is engaged in the 
pursuit of any lawful business, calling or employment” and the circum-
stances were “such as to justify a prudent man in carrying such weapon,