In more than 100 pages of opinions, Justices Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer dueled Thursday over history, a new test for judging gun regulations, and the role of gun violence in America as the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority struck down New York’s restriction on concealed carry licenses.

In some ways, the battle between the court’s most senior justices was reminiscent of the dueling opinions more than a decade ago between the late Justices Antonin Scalia and John Paul Stevens in the landmark Second Amendment ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, announcing an individual right to possess a firearm for self-defense in the home. Scalia, like Thomas on Thursday, prevailed in 2008.