Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf
Page Number: 74.0

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

5 

ALITO, J., concurring 

themselves from criminal attack.  According to survey data, 
defensive  firearm  use  occurs  up  to  2.5  million  times  per 
year.  Brief for Law Enforcement Groups et al. as Amici Cu-
riae 5.  A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report
commissioned by former President Barack Obama reviewed 
the  literature  surrounding  firearms  use  and  noted  that 
“[s]tudies that directly assessed the effect of actual defen-
sive uses of guns . . . have found consistently lower injury 
rates  among  gun-using  crime  victims  compared  with  vic-
tims who used other self-protective strategies.”  Institute of 
Medicine and National Research Council, Priorities for Re-
search To Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence 
15–16 (2013) (referenced in Brief for Independent Women’s
Law Center as Amicus Curiae 19–20). 

Many of the amicus briefs filed in this case tell the story 
of such people.  Some recount incidents in which a potential
victim escaped death or serious injury only because carry-
ing  a  gun  for  self-defense  was  allowed  in  the  jurisdiction 
where the incident occurred.  Here are two examples.  One 
night in 1987, Austin Fulk, a gay man from Arkansas, “was
chatting with another man in a parking lot when four gay 
bashers  charged  them  with  baseball  bats  and  tire  irons. 
Fulk’s companion drew his pistol from under the seat of his 
car, brandished it at the attackers, and fired a single shot
over their heads, causing them to flee and saving the would-
be victims from serious harm.”  Brief for DC Project Foun-
dation et al. as Amici Curiae 31 (footnote omitted). 

On July 7, 2020, a woman was brutally assaulted in the 
parking lot of a fast food restaurant in Jefferson City, Ten-
nessee.  Her assailant slammed her to the ground and be-
gan to drag her around while strangling her.  She was saved 
when  a  bystander  who  was  lawfully  carrying  a  pistol 
pointed his gun at the assailant, who then stopped the as-
sault and the assailant was arrested.  Ibid. (citing C. Weth-
ington, Jefferson City Police: Legally Armed Good Samari-
tan Stops Assault, ABC News 6, WATE.com (July 9, 2020),