The Definition

What “Infringe” Actually Means

The Second Amendment doesn’t say “shall not be banned.” It says shall not be infringed — and at the founding, that word meant something broader.

A right is infringed when its exercise is hindered or encroached upon — the fence doesn’t have to be torn down entirely. Moving it inward is the offense.

“Infringe” at the founding

Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary · 1755

“To violate; to break laws or contracts.” — “To destroy; to hinder.”
Webster’s American Dictionary · 1828

“To break; to violate; to transgress.” — “To hinder; to obstruct.”

Note what is not in those definitions: any requirement of total destruction. To hinder. To obstruct. To encroach. The founders chose a word that reaches the encroachment, not just the abolition. A government that leaves a right standing on paper while making its exercise slower, costlier, and conditional has not avoided the word “infringe” — it has met its definition.

And modern doctrine tracks the old meaning. In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022), the Supreme Court asks first whether a regulation burdens conduct the Second Amendment’s text covers — and if it does, whether the government can justify it by this Nation’s historical tradition. The trigger is burden — hindrance — not ban. That is the definition doing the work in both Colorado lawsuits.

Neither law says “no.”
Both say “yes, if” — if you pay, if you apply, if you wait, if you’re approved.

That is the common thread. Colorado’s tax and Colorado’s card-and-course regime both leave the right formally intact and functionally diminished. Under the founding-era meaning of infringe — to hinder, to encroach — a state-imposed “yes, if” on a constitutional right is the violation. The Second Amendment’s drafters chose a word that prohibits the fence-moving, not merely the fence’s completion.

The state’s answer, in both cases, is that these are modest, historically grounded regulations — not hindrances of constitutional dimension. That’s the fight: one in a Denver courtroom, one in a federal one, and it is the same single question wearing two costumes — does “infringe” mean what it meant?

See It Applied

The Tax — a toll on the right →

How a 6.5% excise “hinders” acquisition — the Langston theory and the Murdock line.

SB25-003 — a gauntlet to the right →

How a card, a course, and a wait “hinder” purchase — the Del Toro theory, stage by stage.

The Magazine Ceiling →

Where a numeric cap on common equipment meets the same test.

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