Excerpts From Friend-of-Court Briefs

• Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Inc. (.pdf):
"Medical professionals have no more qualifications or basis to opine about the Second Amendment than anyone else. The attempt to shroud political gun control arguments in the white coat of physicians and public health officials is utterly baseless, and constitutional law should not be influenced by it."

• 126 female state legislators and academics (.pdf):
"This case provides the Court an opportunity to advance the ability of women to free themselves from being subject to another's ill will and to counter the commonly-held prejudice that women are 'easier targets' simply because of their gender characteristics. Violence against women in the United States is endemic, often deadly, and most frequently committed by men superior in physical strength to their female victims.

"The District's current prohibition against handguns and immediately serviceable firearms in the home effectively eliminates a woman's ability to defend her very life and those of her children against violent attack. Women are simply less likely to be able to thwart violence using means currently permitted under D.C. law. Women are generally less physically strong, making it less likely that most physical confrontations will end favorably for women."

• A group of criminologists (.pdf):
"Handgun prohibition is simply not effective to produce good and valuable effects in society. Handgun prohibitions such as those enacted by the city council of the District of Columbia appear to be effective only at removing from law-abiding citizens the best means of protecting themselves, their loved ones and others from violent criminals. The District's 30-year social experiment with handgun prohibition has, if anything, illustrated this sad fact. Rather than becoming safer, our Nation's Capital has unfortunately become known as the 'murder capital' of the United States, one of the most violent cities in the country. In light of the District's gun prohibitions, there is little that the residents can realistically do but hope that they do not become victims themselves."

Excerpts from amicus briefs that side with the District of Columbia:

• American Public Health Association and other public-health groups (.pdf):
"The studies detailed below show that the risk of suicide, homicide, and accidental gun death is greater in homes with guns, and in communities with a higher prevalence of guns. Numerous studies indicate that people who have guns in their homes are at a substantially increased risk of suicide. Similarly, the presence of a gun at home increases the risk of homicide for the occupants of that home. And handguns, in particular, are responsible for the majority of all firearm homicides and suicides."

• 18 district attorneys, representing San Francisco, New York, and other areas (.pdf):
"The district attorneys urge the court to consider the potentially negative, unintended and wholly unnecessary consequences of an affirming opinion. In short, an affirmance could inadvertently call into question the well settled Second Amendment principles under which countless state and local criminal firearms laws have been upheld by courts nationwide."