Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf
Page Number: 112.0

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

45 

STEVENS, J., dissenting 

simply does not approve of the conclusion the Miller Court 
reached on that evidence.  Standing alone, that is insuffi­
cient  reason  to  disregard  a  unanimous  opinion  of  this
Court, upon which substantial reliance has been placed by 
legislators and citizens for nearly 70 years. 

V 
The  Court  concludes  its  opinion  by  declaring  that  it  is
not the proper role of this Court to change the meaning of 
rights  “enshrine[d]”  in  the  Constitution.  Ante,  at  64.  But 
the right the Court announces was not “enshrined” in the 
Second  Amendment  by  the  Framers;  it  is  the  product  of
today’s law-changing decision.  The majority’s exegesis has 
utterly  failed  to  establish  that  as  a  matter  of  text  or  his­
tory,  “the  right  of  law-abiding,  responsible  citizens  to  use 
arms  in  defense  of  hearth  and  home”  is  “elevate[d]  above
all  other  interests”  by  the  Second  Amendment.    Ante,  at 
64. 

Until  today,  it  has  been  understood  that  legislatures
may  regulate  the  civilian  use  and  misuse  of  firearms  so
long  as  they  do  not  interfere  with  the  preservation  of  a
well-regulated  militia.   The  Court’s  announcement  of  a 
new  constitutional  right  to  own  and  use  firearms  for  pri­
vate  purposes  upsets  that  settled  understanding,  but 
leaves for future cases the formidable task of defining the 
scope of permissible regulations.  Today judicial craftsmen
have confidently asserted that a policy choice that denies a 
“law-abiding,  responsible  citize[n]”  the  right  to  keep  and
use weapons in the home for self-defense is “off the table.” 
Ante, at 64.  Given the presumption that most citizens are
law  abiding,  and  the  reality  that  the  need  to  defend  one­
self  may  suddenly  arise  in  a  host  of  locations  outside  the 
home,  I  fear  that  the  District’s  policy  choice  may  well  be
just  the  first  of  an  unknown  number  of  dominoes  to  be