Wolford v. Lopez · ¶73

The State’s earliest analogue is a 1721 Pennsylvania law entitled “An Act to Prevent the Killing of Deer Out of Sea son, and Against Carrying of Guns and Hunting By Persons Not Qualified.” This statute made it unlawful to “carry any gun or hunt on the improved or inclosed lands of any plantation, other than his own,” without securing “license or permission from the owner of such lands or plantation.” 1721 Pa. Laws, ch. 246, §3, in 3 The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania From 1682 to 1801, pp. 254–225 (J. Mitchell & H. Flanders eds. 1896). The law’s stated purpose was to prevent “divers[e] Abuses, Damages and Inconveniences” that “ha[d] ar[i]se[n] by Persons carrying Guns, and presuming to hunt on other people’s lands.” §2, at 255. As the Third Circuit observed, that law “appears to be primarily focused on preventing Pennsylvanians from hunting on their neighbors’ land, not on…

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