Historical Gun Laws

Welcome to the Repository of Historical Gun Laws, a searchable database of gun laws from the medieval age to 1776 in England and from the colonial era to the middle of the twentieth century in the United States.

This Repository is intended as a resource for scholars and practitioners interested in historical laws concerning firearms and other similar weapons. Although the Repository seeks to be substantial, it is not comprehensive. The absence of a certain type of law in the Repository does not necessarily mean that such a law did not exist. Laws have been transcribed from their source texts exactly as they are found, including any typos. Conscientious users of this Repository should supplement their results with further legal and historical research.