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Page Number: 149

36 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

to achieve the problem-related benefits that it seeks.   

Second,  the  self-defense  interest  in  maintaining  loaded 
handguns  in  the  home  to  shoot  intruders  is  not  the  pri-
mary  interest,  but  at  most  a  subsidiary  interest,  that  the 
Second  Amendment  seeks  to  serve.    The  Second  Amend-
ment’s language, while speaking of a “Militia,” says noth-
ing of “self-defense.”  As JUSTICE STEVENS points out, the 
Second  Amendment’s  drafting  history  shows  that  the
language  reflects  the  Framers’  primary,  if  not  exclusive, 
objective.  See  ante,  at  17–28  (dissenting  opinion).    And 
the  majority  itself  says  that  “the  threat  that  the  new 
Federal Government would destroy the citizens’ militia by 
taking away their arms was the reason that right . . . was
codified in a written Constitution.”  Ante, at 26 (emphasis 
added).  The  way  in  which  the  Amendment’s  operative
clause  seeks  to  promote  that  interest—by  protecting  a
right  “to  keep  and  bear  Arms”—may  in  fact  help  further 
an  interest  in  self-defense.  But  a  factual  connection  falls 
far  short  of  a  primary  objective.  The  Amendment  itself 
tells us that militia preservation was first and foremost in
the  Framers’  minds.  See Miller,  307  U. S.,  at  178  (“With
obvious  purpose  to  assure  the  continuation  and  render
possible the effectiveness of [militia] forces the declaration
and guarantee of the Second Amendment were made,” and 
the  amendment  “must  be  interpreted  and  applied  with
that end in view”).

Further,  any  self-defense  interest  at  the  time  of  the 
Framing  could  not  have  focused  exclusively  upon  urban-
crime  related  dangers.  Two  hundred  years  ago,  most
Americans, many living on the frontier, would likely have
thought  of  self-defense  primarily  in  terms  of outbreaks  of 
fighting  with  Indian  tribes,  rebellions  such  as  Shays’ 
Rebellion,  marauders,  and  crime-related  dangers  to  trav-
elers on the roads, on footpaths, or along waterways.  See 
Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Census, Population: 1790 to 
1990  (1998)  (Table  4),  online  at  http://www.census.gov/