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Page Number: 131.0

18 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

injury  deaths  between  the  ages  of  1  and  19.  Ibid.    More  
male  teenagers  die  from  firearms  than  from  all  natural 
causes  combined.    Dresang,  Gun  Deaths  in  Rural  and
Urban Settings, 14 J. Am. Bd. Family Practice 107 (2001).
Persons  under  25  accounted  for  47%  of  hospital-treated
firearm injuries between June 1, 1992 and May 31, 1993. 
Firearm-Related Injuries 891. 

Handguns  are  involved  in  a  majority  of  firearm  deaths
and injuries in the United States.  Id., at 888.  From 1993 
to  1997,  81%  of  firearm-homicide  victims  were  killed  by
handgun.  Firearm  Injury  and  Death  from  Crime  4;  see 
also Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, C. Per-
kins,  Weapon  Use  and  Violent  Crime,  p.  8  (Sept.  2003),
(Table  10),  http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/wuvc01.
pdf  (hereinafter  Weapon  Use  and  Violent  Crime)  (statis-
tics  indicating  roughly  the  same  rate  for  1993–2001).    In 
the same period, for the 41% of firearm injuries for which
the  weapon  type  is  known,  82%  of  them  were  from  hand-
guns.  Firearm  Injury  and  Death  From  Crime  4.    And 
among children under the age of 20, handguns account for 
approximately  70%  of  all  unintentional  firearm-related 
injuries  and  deaths.  Firearm-Related  Injuries  890.  In 
particular,  70%  of  all  firearm-related  teenage  suicides  in 
1996  involved  a  handgun.  Id.,  at  889;  see  also  Zwerling,
Lynch,  Burmeister,  &  Goertz,  The  Choice  of  Weapons  in
Firearm  Suicides  in  Iowa,  83  Am.  J.  Public  Health  1630, 
1631 (1993) (Table 1) (handguns used in 36.6% of all fire-
arm  suicides  in  Iowa  from  1980–1984  and  43.8%  from 
1990–1991).

Handguns  also  appear  to  be  a  very  popular  weapon
among  criminals.    In  a  1997  survey  of  inmates  who  were
armed during the crime for which they were incarcerated,
83.2%  of  state  inmates  and  86.7%  of  federal  inmates 
said that they were armed with  a handgun.  See Dept. of
Justice,  Bureau  of  Justice  Statistics,  C.  Harlow,  Firearm 
Use  by  Offenders,  p.  3  (Nov.  2001),  online  at  http://