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

Opinion of the Court 

Years of Edward III, 108 Eng. Hist. Rev. 842, 850 (1993).  It 
provided that, with some exceptions, Englishmen could not 
“come before the King’s Justices, or other of the King’s Min-
isters doing their office, with force and arms, nor bring no
force in affray of the peace, nor to go nor ride armed by night
nor  by  day,  in  Fairs,  Markets,  nor  in  the  presence  of  the 
Justices or other Ministers, nor in no part elsewhere, upon 
pain to forfeit their Armour to the King, and their Bodies to 
Prison at the King’s pleasure.”  2 Edw. 3 c. 3 (1328). 

Respondents  argue  that  the  prohibition  on  “rid[ing]”  or
“go[ing]  . . .  armed”  was  a  sweeping  restriction  on  public
carry  of  self-defense  weapons  that  would  ultimately  be 
adopted  in  Colonial  America  and  justify  onerous  public-
carry regulations.  Notwithstanding the ink the parties spill
over  this  provision,  the  Statute  of  Northampton—at  least 
as  it  was  understood  during  the  Middle  Ages—has  little
bearing on the Second Amendment adopted in 1791.  The 
Statute of Northampton was enacted nearly 20 years before 
the  Black  Death,  more  than  200  years  before  the  birth  of 
Shakespeare, more than 350 years before the Salem Witch 
Trials,  more  than  450  years  before  the  ratification  of  the
Constitution,  and  nearly  550  years  before  the  adoption  of 
the Fourteenth Amendment. 

The Statute’s prohibition on going or riding “armed” ob-
viously did not contemplate handguns, given they did not 
appear in Europe until about the mid-1500s.  See K. Chase, 
Firearms: A Global History to 1700, p. 61 (2003).  Rather, it 
appears to have been centrally concerned with the wearing 
of armor.  See, e.g., Calendar of the Close Rolls, Edward III, 
1330–1333,  p. 131  (Apr.  3,  1330)  (H.  Maxwell-Lyte  ed.
1898);  id.,  at  243  (May  28,  1331);  id.,  Edward  III,  1327– 
1330, at 314 (Aug. 29, 1328) (1896).  If it did apply beyond
armor, it applied to such weapons as the “launcegay,” a 10- 
to 12-foot-long lightweight lance.  See 7 Rich. 2 c. 13 (1383);
20 Rich. 2 c. 1 (1396).

The  Statute’s  apparent  focus  on  armor  and,  perhaps,