Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf
Page Number: 130

Cite as:  554 U. S. ____ (2008) 

17 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

tion.  Compare  id.,  at  30  (describing  early  version  of  the
bill), with D. C. Code §7–2502.02). 

2 

Next,  consider  the  facts  as  a  court  must  consider  them 
looking  at  the  matter  as  of  today.   See,  e.g.,  Turner,  520 
U. S.,  at  195  (discussing  role  of  court  as  factfinder  in  a 
constitutional  case).  Petitioners,  and  their  amici,  have 
presented us with more recent statistics that tell much the 
same  story  that  the  committee  report  told  30  years  ago.
At the least, they present nothing that would permit us to
second-guess the Council in respect to the numbers of gun
crimes, injuries, and deaths, or the role of handguns. 

From  1993  to  1997,  there  were  180,533  firearm-related 
deaths in the United States, an average of over 36,000 per 
year.  Dept.  of  Justice,  Bureau  of  Justice  Statistics,  M. 
Zawitz  &  K.  Strom,  Firearm  Injury  and  Death  from
Crime,  1993–97,  p.  2  (Oct.  2000),  online  at  http:// 
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fidc9397.pdf 
(hereinafter 
Firearm Injury and Death from Crime).  Fifty-one percent
were  suicides,  44%  were  homicides,  1%  were  legal  inter-
ventions, 3% were unintentional accidents, and 1% were of 
undetermined  causes.  See  ibid.   Over  that  same  period 
there were an additional 411,800 nonfatal firearm-related 
injuries  treated  in  U. S.  hospitals,  an  average  of  over 
82,000  per  year.  Ibid.  Of  these,  62%  resulted  from  as-
saults, 17% were unintentional, 6% were suicide attempts, 
1%  were  legal  interventions,  and  13%  were  of  unknown 
causes.  Ibid. 

The  statistics  are  particularly  striking  in  respect  to
children and adolescents.  In over one in every eight fire-
arm-related deaths in 1997, the victim was someone under 
the age of 20.  American Academy of Pediatrics, Firearm-
Related  Injuries  Affecting  the  Pediatric  Population,  105 
Pediatrics  888  (2000)  (hereinafter  Firearm-Related  Inju-
ries).  Firearm-related  deaths  account  for  22.5%  of  all