(Washington, DC) Three prominent groups representing children and youth -- the Children’s Defense Fund, the Society for Adolescent Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics – have filed an amicus brief supporting the District of Columbia in seeking Supreme Court review of a ruling of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit that held in March 2007 that the District’s longstanding ban on private possession of handguns in the District violates the Second Amendment. The groups filed the brief late Friday.
On September 4, 2007, the Office of the District of Columbia’s Attorney General, Linda Singer, filed a petition for certiorari asking the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling and uphold the well-supported judgment of the District government that the ban saves lives and is fully constitutional.
Agreeing that the Supreme Court should review this matter, these leading national voices on children’s health emphasized in particular that rulings like the DC Circuit’s are dangerous because of the well-established role that handguns have in preventable death and injury to our Nation's children and adolescents.
“The Children's Defense Fund believes that it is up to adults to protect children from firearms by supporting common sense gun safety measures,” said CDF President Marian Wright Edelman. “As handguns pose a particular threat to children, CDF believes that the District of Columbia’s handgun law was not only a reasonable restriction, but crucial for our children’s safety. This country does a far better job of protecting guns than protecting children. In 2004 alone, the gun death toll for children and teens in the U.S. was 2,825, more than the total number of American service men and women who died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan since those wars began in 2003 through the end of 2006. What is it going to take for us to stop the killing of children and the proliferation of guns?”
“The Society for Adolescent Medicine believes that firearm violence is one of the most serious threats to the health of adolescents in the United States. For that reason, the Society supports legislative and regulatory strategies to reduce the availability of handguns, the primary source of firearm injuries among adolescents,” said Abigail English, JD, President, Society for Adolescent Medicine.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that the most effective measure to prevent firearm-related injuries to children and adolescents is the absence of guns from homes and communities. Firearm regulations, such as the District of Columbia’s 30-year-old ban on all functional firearms, are the most effective way to reduce firearm-related injuries. The Academy applauds DC in its initiative to uphold its gun ban law and is pleased to offer its support in this important case,” said Jay E. Berkelhamer, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“We feel strongly that our limit on possession of handguns is vital to protect public safety, and particularly to safeguard our children. We have seen the lives of too many young people ended, or upended, by gun violence,” Attorney General Singer said in response to the filing of the amici brief. “The voice and interest of children’s advocates are vitally important in this case.”
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