Citation

Miller M, Hemenway DA. New Engl. J. Med. 2008; 359(10): 989-991.

Affiliation

Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Massachusetts Medical Society)

DOI

10.1056/NEJMp0805923

PMID

18768940

Abstract

This past June (2008), in a 5-to-4 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, the United States Supreme Court struck down a ban on handgun ownership in the nation's capital and ruled that the District's law requiring all firearms in the home to be locked violated the Second Amendment to the Constitution. But the Supreme Court's finding of a Second Amendment right to have a handgun in the home does not mean that it is a wise decision to own a gun or to keep it easily accessible. Deciding whether to own a gun entails balancing potential benefits and risks. One of the risks for which the empirical evidence is strongest, and the risk whose death toll is greatest, is that of completed suicide.

Language: en