Guns and public health
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case about the District of Columbia's decades-old laws banning new registration of handguns, outlawing concealed weapons and requiring that guns kept at home be unloaded and either disassembled or unlocked. It is the most important gun-rights case to reach the high court in decades.
The medical community considers gun violence to be a legal, a political and a public health issue. The New England Journal of Medicine has published three relevant articles online: an examination of the issue from a public health perspective, an analysis of the legal and constitutional issues and an editorial urging the high court to consider public-health as well as legal issues as it weighs the constitutionality of the District's laws.
What do you think the court should do, and why? To what extent do you think the public-health angle should be a part of the discussion?