Page:State v. Buzzard.pdf/12

Rh

Rh

By D, J.

The appellee contends that the law, under which he stands indicted, is unconstitutional, and that a right, secured to him by the 2d article of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, has been violated. This article declares, that "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." The question is one of some importance, not so much, as I conceive, from any difficulty in arriving at a correct conclusion, as from the contrariety of opinions entertained by the different State Courts that have passed upon it. It is conceded by all, that the Federal Government is one of limited powers. It is not contended that the General Assembly of this State could interfere with any regulations made by Congress, as to the organizing, arming, or disciplining the militia, or in the manner in which that militia are either to keep or bear their arms. I shall endeavor to prove that it does not do so. The class of cases to which the constitutional provision applies, is widely different from the right of a private citizen to bear, concealed about his person, deadly weapons or arms. In the one, they are kept and carried in conformity with the constitution and laws of the United States, with a certain specific object in view: in the other, they are kept and carried for private purposes, wholly independent of any constitutional regulation, and to answer private ends, which have no bearing upon the security of the State. If this idea be correct, then it follows, that when arms are not kept or used for the defence of the State or Federal Government, the manner of carrying and mode of using them are subject to the control and authority of the State Legislature. Every citizen owes a double allegiance, and is entitled to the two-fold protection of the General and State Governments. To the first, the Constitution of the United States commits the powers of war, peace, commerce, negotiation, and those general powers relating to our external relations, and also the powers of an internal kind which require uniformity in their operation. To the second, belong all that is not included in the first, of a municipal character, particularly every thing connected with the police and economy of the State. If the provision, when it