Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf
Page Number: 127.0

14 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

that the Second Amendment seeks to protect, and whether 
there  are  practical  less  burdensome  ways  of  furthering 
those  interests.    The  ultimate  question  is  whether  the
statute imposes burdens that, when viewed in light of the 
statute’s  legitimate  objectives,  are  disproportionate.    See 
Nixon, 528 U. S., at 402 (BREYER, J., concurring). 

A 
No  one  doubts  the  constitutional  importance  of  the
statute’s  basic  objective,  saving  lives.    See,  e.g.,  Salerno, 
481 U. S., at 755.  But there is considerable debate about 
whether the District’s  statute helps to achieve that objec-
tive.  I begin by reviewing the statute’s tendency to secure
that  objective  from  the  perspective  of  (1)  the  legislature
(namely,  the  Council  of  the  District  of  Columbia)  that
enacted the statute in  1976, and (2) a court that seeks to 
evaluate the Council’s decision today. 

1 
First,  consider  the  facts  as  the  legislature  saw  them
when  it  adopted  the  District  statute.    As  stated  by  the 
local  council  committee  that  recommended  its  adoption,
the  major  substantive  goal  of  the  District’s  handgun  re-
striction  is  “to  reduce  the  potentiality  for  gun-related
crimes  and  gun-related  deaths  from  occurring  within  the
District of Columbia.”  Hearing and Disposition before the 
House Committee on the District of Columbia, 94th Cong., 
2d Sess., on H. Con. Res. 694, Ser. No. 94–24, p. 25 (1976) 
(herinafter  DC  Rep.)  (reproducing,  inter  alia,  the  Council 
committee report).  The committee concluded, on the basis 
of “extensive public hearings” and “lengthy research,” that
“[t]he  easy  availability  of  firearms  in  the  United  States
has  been  a  major  factor  contributing  to  the  drastic  in-
crease in gun-related violence and crime over the past  40
years.”  Id., at 24, 25.  It reported to the Council “startling 
statistics,”  id.,  at  26,  regarding  gun-related  crime,  acci-