Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf
Page Number: 128.0

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

15 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

dents,  and  deaths,  focusing  particularly  on  the  relation
between  handguns  and  crime  and  the  proliferation  of 
handguns within the District.  See id., at 25–26. 

The  committee  informed  the  Council  that  guns  were
“responsible for 69 deaths in this country each day,” for a
total of “[a]pproximately 25,000 gun-deaths . . . each year,” 
along with an additional 200,000 gun-related injuries.  Id., 
at 25.  Three thousand of these deaths, the report stated, 
were  accidental.  Ibid.  A  quarter  of  the  victims  in  those
accidental deaths were children under the age of 14.  Ibid.  
And  according  to  the  committee,  “[f]or  every  intruder
stopped by a homeowner with a firearm, there are 4 gun-
related accidents within the home.”  Ibid. 

In  respect  to  local  crime,  the  committee  observed  that
there  were  285  murders  in  the  District  during  1974—a
record  number.  Id.,  at  26.    The  committee  also  stated 
that,  “[c]ontrary  to  popular  opinion  on  the  subject,  fire-
arms are more frequently involved in deaths and violence
among relatives and friends than in premeditated criminal
activities.”  Ibid.  Citing  an  article  from  the  American
Journal of Psychiatry, the committee reported that “[m]ost 
murders are committed by previously law-abiding citizens, 
in  situations  where  spontaneous  violence  is  generated  by 
anger,  passion  or  intoxication,  and  where  the  killer  and 
  “Twenty-five  percent  of 
victim  are  acquainted.”    Ibid.
these  murders,”  the  committee  informed  the  Council, 
“occur within families.”  Ibid. 

The  committee  report  furthermore  presented  statistics
strongly  correlating  handguns  with  crime.    Of  the  285 
murders in the District in 1974, 155 were committed with 
handguns.  Ibid.
 This did not appear to be an aberration, 
as the report revealed that “handguns [had been] used in 
roughly  54%  of  all  murders”  (and  87%  of  murders  of  law 
enforcement  officers)  nationwide  over  the  preceding  sev-
eral years.  Ibid.  Nor were handguns only linked to mur-
ders,  as  statistics  showed  that  they  were  used  in  roughly