Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-915_8o6b.pdf
Page Number: 83

12 

UNITED STATES v. RAHIMI 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

Id., at 598. 

These  proposals  carry  little  interpretative  weight.    To 
begin with, it is “dubious to rely on [drafting] history to in-
terpret a text that was widely understood to codify a pre-
existing  right.”  Heller,  554  U. S.,  at  603.    Moreover,  the 
States rejected the proposals.  Samuel Adams withdrew his 
own proposal after it “alarmed both Federalists and Anti-
federalists.”  6 Documentary History 1453 (internal quota-
tion marks omitted).4  The Pennsylvania Anti-Federalists’
proposal similarly failed to gain a majority of the state con-
vention.  2 B. Schwartz, The Bill of Rights: A Documentary 
History 628 (1971). 

The Government never explains why or how language ex-
cluded from the Constitution could operate to limit the lan-
guage actually ratified.  The more natural inference seems 
to be the opposite—the unsuccessful proposals suggest that
the Second Amendment preserves a more expansive right.  
After  all,  the  Founders  considered,  and  rejected,  any  tex-
tual limitations in favor of an unqualified directive: “[T]he
right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be in-
fringed.”

In addition to the proposals, the Government throws in a 
hodgepodge of sources from the mid-to-late 1800s that use
the phrase “peaceable” in relation to firearms.  Many of the
sources simply make passing reference to the notion.  See, 
e.g., H. R. Rep. No. 30, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 2, p. 229 
(1866)  (proposed  circular  explaining  freed  slaves  “have
shown by their peaceful and orderly conduct that they can
safely be trusted with fire-arms, and they need them to kill 
game for subsistence”).  Other sources are individual mus-
ings on firearms policy.  See, e.g., The Sale of Pistols, N. Y. 
Times, June 22, 1874 (advocating for “including pistols in 

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4 When  Anti-Federalists  renewed  Samuel  Adams’  proposal,  not  only
did the proposal fail, but Adams himself voted against it.  6 Documentary 
History 1453.