Arms

Arms constitutional

Weapons that a person can carry and use — for self-defense or otherwise.

Technical: In the Second Amendment, 'Arms' was construed in Heller by reference to founding-era dictionaries as weapons of offense or armor of defense, i.e., instruments a person bears to defend or to cast at or strike another.

Founding-era note: Heller relied on Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755) and Noah Webster's (1828) to fix the founding-era meaning of 'arms,' 'keep,' and 'bear.'

Sources: District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008)

A dictionary entry is reference: it describes how a term is used. It is not itself binding law. Why that matters →

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