3-29-1871: "that if a police officer of the city of Richmond or New York should find a drunken negro or white man upon the streets with loaded pistol, flourishing it, etc., and by virtue of any ordinance, law, or usage, either of city or State, he takes it away, the officer may be sued, because the right to bear arms is secured by the Constitution…”

Rep. W. C. Whitthorne, “Is it because in having organized a negro militia, in having disarmed the white man . . . That is to say, that if a police officer of the city of Richmond or New York should find a drunken negro or white man upon the streets with loaded pistol, flourishing it, etc., and by virtue of any ordinance, law, or usage, either of city or State, he takes it away, the officer may be sued, because the right to bear arms is secured by the Constitution…”, March 29, 1871