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Texas Supreme Court· 7/1/1872

English v. State

Citations

  • 35 Tex. 473

Syllabus

<p>1. The Act of April 13, 1871,oregulating and in certain cases prohibiting the carrying of pistols, dirks, and certain other deadly weapons, is not repugnant to the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which provides 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 nor is the Act in violation of the thirteenth section of the first article of the Constitution of this State, which provides that “every person shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State, under such regulations as the Legislature may prescribe.\</p> <p>•3. The “arms\ referred to in the second amendment to the United States Constitution are the arms of a militiaman or soldier, and they do not comprise dirks, bowie knives, etc., regulated by the Legislature in the Act of April 13, 1871.</p> <p>8. The powers of government are intended to operate upon the civil conduct of the citizen; and whatever conduct oñends against public morals or public decency comes within the range of legislative authority.</p>

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

  • observing that “almost, if not every one of the States of this Union have [a prohibition on the carrying of deadly weapons] upon their statute books,” and lambasting claims of a right to carry such weapons as “little short of ridiculous”
  • observing that “almost, if not every one of the States of this Union have [a prohibition on the carry­ ing of deadly weapons] upon their statute books,” and lambasting claims of a right to carry such weapons as “little short of ridiculous”
  • categorizing pistols, dirks, daggers, slungshots, swordcanes, spears, brass-knuckles and bowie knives as \wicked devices of modern craft\
  • “The terms dirks, daggers, slungshots, sword-canes, brass- knuckles and bowie knives, belong to no military vocabulary.”
  • “The word ‘arms’ . . . refers to the arms of a militiaman or soldier, and the word is used in its military sense.”
  • “The terms dirks, daggers, slungshots, sword-canes, brass-knuckles and bowie knives, belong to no military vocabulary.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Walker

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

48 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

3 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

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