Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Early American Argument for Banning Carrying Concealed Weapons:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_12_07-2008_12_13.shtml#1228953400
I've been trying to track down the early legal and ideological sources
of bans on concealed weapons, which were enacted in many states in the
1800s. Bliss v. Commonwealth (1822) struck down an 1813 ban enacted in
Kentucky, but later cases generally upheld the concealed carry bans,
often on the grounds that open carry was available as an option. And
in the course of my research, I ran across this interesting item, from
the Richmond, Virginia Grand Jury in 1820, see Daily National
Intelligencer, Sept. 9, 1820, at 2 (paragraph breaks added):
On Wearing Concealed Arms
We, the Grand Jury for the city of Richmond, at August Court, 1820,
do not believe it to be inconsistent with our duty to animadvert
upon any practice which, in our opinion, may be attended with
consequences dangerous to the peace and good order of society. We
have observed, with regret, the very numerous instances of
stabbing, which have of late years occurred, and which have been
owing in most cases to the practice which has so frequently
prevailed, of wearing dirks: Armed in secret, and emboldened by the
possession of these deadly weapons, how frequently have disputes
been carried to extremities, which might otherwise have been either
amicably adjusted, or attended with no serious consequences to the
parties engaged.
The Grand Jury would not recommend any legislative interference
with what they conceive to be one of the most essential privileges
of freemen, the right of carrying arms: But we feel it our duty
publicly to express our abhorrence of a practice which it becomes
all good citizens to frown upon with contempt, and to endeavor to
suppress. We consider the practice of carrying arms secreted, in
cases where no personal attack can reasonably be apprehended, to be
infinitely more reprehensible than even the act of stabbing, if
committed during a sudden affray, in the heat of passion, where the
party was not previously armed for the purpose.
We conceive that it manifests a hostile, and if the expression may
be allowed, a piratical disposition against the human race -- that
is derogatory from that open, manly, and chivalrous character,
which it should be the pride of our countrymen to maintain
unimpaired -- and that its fatal effects have been too frequently
felt and deplored, not to require the serious animadversions of the
community. Unanimously adopted.
James Brown, Foreman.
I should stress that I quote this as a window on attitudes of the
time, not to endorse this for today. I generally support laws allowing
law-abiding adults to carry concealed weapons in public; and it seems
to me that the Grand Jury's strong preference for open carry over
concealed carry is on balance not sound for today. But it's important
to realize why bans on concealed carry -- coupled with toleration of
open carry -- rightly or wrongly became popular in the 1800s. If any
of you have pointers to specific sources from before 1822 that can
shed more light on the subject, I'd love to see them.
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