Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf
Page Number: 57

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

51 

Opinion of the Court 

was  dispositive,  then  the  “reasonable  fear”  requirement
would be redundant. 

Moreover,  the  overlapping  scope  of  surety  statutes  and 
criminal statutes suggests that the former were not viewed 
as  substantial  restrictions  on  public  carry.    For  example,
when Massachusetts enacted its surety statute in 1836, it 
reaffirmed its 1794 criminal prohibition on “go[ing] armed 
offensively, to the terror of the people.” Mass. Rev. Stat., ch.
85,  §24.  And  Massachusetts  continued  to  criminalize  the 
carrying of various “dangerous weapons” well after passing 
the 1836 surety statute.  See, e.g., 1850 Mass. Acts ch. 194, 
§1, p. 401; Mass. Gen. Stat., ch. 164, §10 (1860).  Similarly,
Virginia  had  criminalized  the  concealed  carry  of  pistols
since 1838, see 1838 Va. Acts ch. 101, §1, nearly a decade 
before  it  enacted  its  surety  statute,  see  1847  Va.  Acts  ch. 
14, §16.  It is unlikely that these surety statutes constituted 
a “severe” restraint on public carry, let alone a restriction
tantamount to a ban, when they were supplemented by di-
rect criminal prohibitions on specific weapons and methods
of carry.

To summarize: The historical evidence from antebellum 
America does demonstrate that the manner of public carry
was subject to reasonable regulation.  Under the common 
law, individuals could not carry deadly weapons in a man-
ner  likely  to  terrorize  others.    Similarly,  although  surety
statutes did not directly restrict public carry, they did pro-
vide financial incentives for responsible arms carrying.  Fi-
nally,  States  could  lawfully  eliminate  one  kind  of  public
carry—concealed carry—so long as they left open the option 
to carry openly. 

None of these historical limitations on the right to bear
arms  approach  New  York’s  proper-cause  requirement  be-
cause  none  operated  to  prevent  law-abiding  citizens  with
ordinary self-defense needs from carrying arms in public for 
that purpose.