FRC Jurisdictions Portal
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This top community organizes Firearms Research Center holdings by jurisdiction. It provides separate collections for U.S. states, territories, the District of Columbia, and the federal jurisdiction, spanning the territorial period to the present.
Scope of Content
- Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and selected municipal ordinances.
- Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, company records, and oral histories tied to specific places and periods.
- Research outputs: FRC reports, datasets, and interpretive materials that contextualize legal and technical developments.
How to Use
- Browse: open a jurisdiction collection to view items for that state, territory, DC, or the federal jurisdiction.
- Search: use keywords and filter by Jurisdiction, Date Issued, and Category. Record any Exceptions noted for applicability.
- Cite: use the item’s identifier and provided links (Original Source and Duke reference) when available.
Metadata & Standards
Items are described using Dublin Core with standardized fields for Jurisdiction, Date Issued, Category, and Exceptions to support precise discovery and comparison.
Questions
For questions about coverage, rights, or submissions, contact the Firearms Research Center (firearmsresearchcenter.org).
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Item type:Item, 2 Albert G. Hodges, A Digest of the Statute Laws of Kentucky 1289-90 (1834)(1813)Prohibited the concealed carry of any pocket pistol, dirk, knife, or sword cane, unless traveling.Item type:Item, 2 Albert G. Hodges, A Digest of the Statute Laws of Kentucky 1167 (1834)(1815)Required all free men to bear arms for the common defense, but conscientious objectors were ordered to pay a sum equal to the value of the foregone personal services.Item type:Item, 1 Albert G. Hodges, A Digest of the Statute Laws of Kentucky 148–49 (1834)(1814)Authorized the governor to take and keep public arms.Item type:Item, 2 Albert G. Hodges, A Digest of the Statute Laws of Kentucky 1291 (1834)(1819)Provided that if any slave wound or attempt to kill any white person, that slave and their aiders and abettors would be punished by death.Item type:Item, Miss. Const. art. I, § 23(1817)Declared every citizen has a right to bear arms in defence of himself and the State.Item type:Item, Me. Const. of 1819, art. I, § 16(1819)Provided that every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms for the common defense, and the right shall never be questioned.Item type:Item, 1819 Ind. Acts 39(1819)An Act to Prohibit the Wearing of Concealed Weapons: Prohibited concealed carry of an dirk, pistol, sword in cane, or any other unlawful weapon. Violators guilty of a misdemeanor, fined not more than one hundred dollars.Item type:Item, 1819 Va. Code 423(1819)Ch. 111 §§ 7-8: Prohibited "free negro or mulatto" from keeping or carrying any kind of firelock, military weapon, powder, or lead without a license from a court.Item type:Item, 1818 Vt. Acts & Resolves 64-65(1818)An Act Regulating and Governing the Militia of This State, § 42: No noncommissioned officer, private or citizen shall unnecessarily fire a gun, single musket or pistol, in any public road, or near any house or place of parade, on the evening preceding, on the day or evening of the same, on which any troop company, battalion or regiment shall be ordered to assemble for military dutyItem type:Item, The General Ordinances of the City of Charleston, South Carolina 199–200 (1895)(1815)ch. 15, §§ 566-570: Sec. 566.[1] It shall not be lawful for any person or persons to carry gunpowder without a secure and proper covering, in any wagon, cart, dray, or otherwise, through the streets, lanes, or on the wharves of this City, and any person or persons so offending, shall forfeit, for every such offence, the sum of fifty dollars. Sec. 567.[2] It shall not be lawful for any person or persons to sell any gunpowder, which may at the time be within the City of Charleston, in any quantity, without having first obtained a license to keep and sell gunpowder, the said license to be issued by the Clerk of Council, who shall receive, for the use of the City, from the person obtaining the license, the sum of one dollar for each license so issued, and every such license shall be in force for one year from the date thereof, unless previously annulled by the City Council, and no longer; and every person or persons offending herein shall forfeit and pay for the said offence the sum of one hundred dollars. Sec. 568.[3] It shall not be lawful for any merchant, factor, retailer, or dealer in gunpowder, or any person or persons whomsoever, to retain, have, or keep in his, her, or their possession, any quantity of gunpowder exceeding one pound in weight, unless the same shall be well secured in a tin canister or canisters, which said canisters shall be plainly marked or labelled on the outside thereof, with the word "Gunpowder," and shall be deposited and kept on the right side of the principal door or entrance to the store, shop, or premises wherein the same may be; and any person or persons offending against any of the provisions of this section, shall forfeit and pay, for every such offence, the sum of one hundred dollars. Sec. 569.[4] No merchant, factor, retailer, or dealer in gunpowder, or any person or persons whomsoever, within this City, shall retain, keep, or have, in his, her or their possession, at any one time, a greater quantity of gunpowder, than twenty-five pounds weight; and, on information given to the Mayor, or the same coming by any means, to his knowledge, of a greater quantity than twenty-five pounds weight, in the possession of, or within the enclosure or enclosures of any person or persons whomsoever, the Mayor is hereby required and directed to prosecute such person or persons so offending, in any court of competent jurisdiction, when, on conviction of the same, the party shall be fined in the sum of one hundred dollars. Sec. 570.[5] It shall not be lawful to establish or keep within the limits of the City, any magazine, or place for the storage of gunpowder, nor to keep any gunpowder in any place within the said limits, excepting in small quantities, as herein provided, under a penalty or fine not exceeding five hundred dollarsItem type:Item, 1819-21 R.I. Pub. Laws 289(1819)An Act To Prevent Certain Disorders In The Town Of Bristol, § 3: And be it further enacted, That if any person or persons shall, at any time hereafter, fire any gun or pistol in any of the streets, roads, lanes, buildings, or from any of the walls or fences thereto contiguous, and within the compact part of said town, without justifiable cause, such person or persons shall upon complaint and conviction thereof as aforesaid, pay a fine not less than two dollars nor more than four dollars for the first offense, and the sum of four dollars for each and every subsequent offence, to be paid and appropriated as aforesaid.Item type:Item, By-Laws and Ordinances of the City of Pittsburgh 73 (1828)(1816)Ch. 2, §§ 1-3 : That no shop-keeper or other person or persons, shall keep, at the same time, in any house, shop, cellar or warehouse, or other apartment, or in any boat within the said city, more than thirty pounds weight of gun-powder. § 2. That the aforesaid quantity of gun-powder allowed to be kept within the city, shall be deposited in a place by itself, separate from other goods and commodities, and shall be secured by lock and key, or in some other safe manner. § 3. That no person shall carry or convey in any dray, cart, wagon or other carriage, any greater quantity of gun-powder than thirty pounds weight, at any one time, in or through the city, without securing the same in a good bag or bags, or within a canvas or other safe covering completely around the said powder, sufficient to prevent the same from scattering from the said carriage.Item type:Item, By-Laws and Ordinances of the City of Pittsburgh 99 (1828)(1816)Ch. 16, § 1: That if any person or persons shall, within the said city, beat a drum, or without lawful authority, ring any public bell, after sunset, or at any time except in lawful defence of person or property, discharge any gun or fire arms, or play at or throw any metal or stone bullet, or make a bon-fire, or raise or create any false alarm of fire, he, she or they so offending, shall for every such offence, on conviction thereof, forfeit and pay the sum of four dollars32…Item type:Item, A DIGEST OF ACTS OF ASSEMBLY, RELATING TO THE INCORPORATED DISTRICT OF THE NORTHERN LIBERTIES, at 94, Ordinance of Nov. 6, 1815, § 7 (1847)(1815)Prohibited discharge of any cannon, artillery, small arms, or prove any pistol, gun, musket barrels, cannon, or illuminate any house. Violators forfeit the weapons and fined two dollars.Item type:Item, Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, from the Fourteenth Day of October, One Thousand Seven Hundred, to the Twentieth Day of March, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ten, at 182, ch. 1746, § 10 (Vol. 3, 1810)(1810)§That if any person within this commonwealth shall challenge, by word or writing, the person of another to fight at sword, rapier, pistol, or other deadly weapon, such person so challenging, shall forfeit and pay for every such offenseItem type:Item, Act Incorporating the City of Cincinnati, and the Ordinances of Said City Now in Force 44 (1828)(1818)That each and every person who shall shoot , or fire off, any rifle, musket, fowling piece, pistol, or any other fire arms, or discharge squibs, crackers, or any other fire works within the bounds of the Corporation, he or she shall, on conviction thereof before the Mayor forfeit and pay to the said Mayor for the use of the Corporation, for each and every such offence, a sum not less than Two Dollars, nor more than Ten Dollars,Item type:Item, John Haywood, A Manual of the Laws of North-Carolina, Arranged under Distinct Heads in Alphabetical Order, Oaths and Affirmations 40 (1814)(1814)The oath of a Constable, § XXIII: You shall swear that you will well and truly serve the State of North Carolina in the office of a constable, you shall see and cause the peace of the State to be well and duly preserved and kept according to your power, you shall arrest all such persons as in your sight shall right or go armed offensively, or shall commit or make any riot, affray or other breach of the peace; you shall do your best endeavor, upon complaint to you made, to apprehend all felons, and rioters, or persons riotously assembled; and if any such offender shall make resistance with force, you shall make hue and cry, and shall pursue them according to lawItem type:Item, 1811 N.H. Laws 74(1811)An Act To Regulate The Keeping And Selling, And Transporting of Gunpowder, chap. 61, §5: Banned sale or offer for sale of gunpowder in the night time, between sunsetting and sunrising; banned also dealing out any gunpowder at night.Item type:Item, 1818 Terr. of Mo. Laws 374(1818)Prohibited "slave or mulatto" from carrying a gun, powder, shot, club or other weapon and from possessing a gun or ammunition.Item type:Item, 1818 Terr. of Mo. Laws 281(1818)Militia, § 4: Each militia man shall provide himself, with-in one month from the date of his enrollment with a good musket, a sufficient bayonet and belt, or a fusil, two spare flints, a knapsack and pouch with a box there-in to contain twentyfour cartridges suited to the bore of his musket or fusil, each cartridge to contain a pro-per quantity of powder and ball: or a good rifle, knap-sack, pouch and powder horn with twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powe-derItem type:Item, 1814 Miss. Terr. Laws 16(1814)An Act To Authorize The Governor Of Mississippi Territory, To Accept Of The Services Of Citizens Exempted From Militia Duty, § 2: Immediately on the governor's acceptance of any number of volunteers, by virtue of this act, each private shall proceed to provide himself with a good rifle, musket or shot gun with four flints, twenty rounds of powder, ball, or buckshot, best suited to his gun, together with the most convenient accoutrements. The commissioned officers shall be armed with swords; and the arms and accoutrements of all such volunteers shall be exempted from executions in payment of debts and their persons, when on service, free from arrest in civil cases.Item type:Item, 1818 Miss. Laws 220(1818)Supplemental to an Act to erect the town of Netchez into a city, and to incorporate the same, § 2: That said president and select men, shall and may, from time to time, pass ordinances to regulate the keeping, carting and transporting gun powder or other combustible or dangerous materials[.]Item type:Item, 1814 Mass. Acts 464(1814)An Act in Addition to an Act, entitled "An Act to Provide for the Proof of Fire Arms, Manufactured within this Commonwealth," ch. 192, § 2: Requiring all musket barrels and pistol barrels, manufactured within this Commonwealth to be proved by the person appointed according to the provisions of an act . . . with a charge of powder equal in weight to the ball which fits the bore of the barrel to be proved.Item type:Item, Ordinances Ordained and Established by the Mayor & City Council of the City of New Orleans 66 (1817)(1817)Art. 10. It shall not be lawful for any person to have or keep within the city and suburbs, or within two miles of the same (except the public magazine, or place of depot appointed for that purpose) any quantity of gunpowder, at any one time, exceeding one hundred pounds weight, in any one place, house, store or out-house, which said quantity of one hundred pounds shall be separated in several stone jugs or tin canisters, each of which shall not contain more than ten pounds of powder, and shall be provided with a safe and sufficient stopple; and if any person or person shall keep any greater quantity of gunpowder at any one time than one hundred pounds, in any one place, house, store or out-house, or if the same gunpowder, so kept as aforesaid, shall not be separated in the manner herein above directed, he, she, or they shall forfeit all such gunpowder so kept contrary to the true intent and meaning of this ordinance, or so permitted to be kept, and which shall not be separated as aforesaid, and shall also forfeit and pay a fine not less than twenty-five, nor more than one hundred dollars, to be recovered with costs of suit, by the Mayor or any other competent magistrate; one half to the informer, and the other half for the use of the cityItem type:Item, 1813 Ky. Acts 100(1813)An Act to Prevent Persons in this Commonwealth from Wearing Concealed Arms, Except in Certain Cases, ch. 89,§ 1.: Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, that any person in this Commonwealth, who shall hereafter wear a pocket pistol, dirk, large knife, or sword in a cane, concealed as a weapon, unless when travelling on a journey, shall be fined .Item type:Item, 1816 La. Acts 92(1816)An Act to Amend the Act Entitled "An Act to Incorporate the city of New Orleans" and the Act Entitled "An act to determine the mode of election of the mayor, recorder and other public officers necessary for the administration and police of the city of New Orleans and for Other Purposes [sic],§ 1: [T]he mayor and city council of the city of New Orleans shall have full power and authority . . . [T]o prevent gun powder being stowed within the walls and suburbs in such quantity as to endanger the public safety .Item type:Item, Ordinances Ordained and Established by the Mayor & City Council of the City of New Orleans 68 (1817)(1817)12: No person shall hereafter be permitted to fire or discharge any gun, pistol, fowling piece or firearm, nor to discharge or let off any rocket, cracker, squib or other fire-works, in any street, court yard, lot, walk or public way, within the city or suburbs, or from the door or window of any house or other building, or near any house or other inhabited part of said city or suburbs, on any account whatever particularly on the occasion of festivals or public rejoicings, under the penalty of from five to ten dollars upon each offender,Item type:Item, 1811 N.J. Laws 225-26(1811)An Act to Regulate Gun Powder Manufactories and Magazines within this State 1: Required manufactories of gunpowder and storage magazines to be located away from populated areas.Item type:Item, 1812 La. Acts 172, 174(1813)1: Prohibited the carrying of any concealed weapon, including a dirk, dagger, knife, pistol, or any other deadly weapon.Item type:Item, An Ordinance Respecting Public Balls, New Orleans, LA (Passed 27 Oct. 1817)(1817)Prohibited any person from entering any public ballroom with any cane, stick, sword, or any other weapon. Such weapons shall be checked in at the entrance with receipt documentation.Item type:Item, Ordinances of the Borough of Vincennes, with the Act of Incorporation and Supplement Thereto Prefixed 54-55 (1820)(1819)Prohibited "any negro or mulatto" from possessing "deadly weapons."Item type:Item, Nathaniel Pope, Laws of the Territory of Illinois 154 (1815)(1815)Prohibited to trade or gift any horse mare, gun tommahawk, knife, blanket, shrouding, calico, saddle, bridle, or any goods wares or merchandize with the Kaskasia Indians. All such sales and gifts shall be considered fraudulent. Violators fined twenty dollars.Item type:Item, Nathaniel Pope, Laws of the Territory of Illinois 25 (1815)(1810)An Act to suppress duelling, Adopted from the Virginia Code: Prohibited fighting or agreeing to fight in a duel with any engine instrument or weapon where the probably consequences might be death of either party, and in doing so shall kill his antagonist or any other person, or inflict such a wound that the person injured shall die thereof within three months. Any violators, their aiders, abettors, and councillors thereof duly convicted shall be guilty of murder and suffer death by hanging.Item type:Item, 2d General Assembly, Illinois Territory, An Act Prohibiting Trade with the Indians (1813)(1813)An act prohibiting the trading with Indians, Sec. 2: Prohibited trading or bartering a gun or other article commonly use for hunting with tribes. Also prohibited any instrument of husbandry or cooking utensil, or clothing or horse. Violators forfeit the item and pay any sum not less than ten nor exceeding fifty dollars.Item type:Item, 1821 Ga. Laws 593(1816)Div. 9, § 4: Prohibited challenging another, or accepting any such challenge, to duel with a sword, pistol, or other deadly weapon. Violators fined a sum of five hundred dollars and imprisoned at hard labour not less than three months nor more than one year.Item type:Item, 1821 Ga. Laws 599(1816)Div. 10, § 19: Prohibited the carrying of any pistol, hanger, cutlass, bludgeon, or other offensive weapon with the intent to assault a person. Punishable by imprisonment with hard labor for a period of time to be determined by a jury.Item type:Item, 4 Del. Laws 522 (1812)(1812)An Act to Prevent the Discharging of Fire-Arms Within the Towns and Villages, and Other Public Places Within this State, and for Other Purposes. §1: Prohibited the discharge of any gun, ordinance, musket, fowling piece, fuse, or pistol in any town or village. When town limits cannot be ascertained, not within one quarter mile of the centre of such town or village, the greens, streets, alleys or lanes of any town or village.Item type:Item, Conn. Const. art. I, § 15(1818)Declared every citizen has a right to bear arms in defence of himself and the State.Item type:Item, Ala. Const. art. I, § 23(1819)Declared every citizen has a right to bear arms in defence of himself and the State.