The Brady Campaigns Idea Of How To Reduce Gun Violence

The Brady Campaign sent out this news release about the recent court case striking down the Firearms Control Regulation Act of 1975.

Statement Of Brady President Paul Helmke On DC Circuit's Ruling Striking Down DC Handgun Law

For Immediate Release:
03-09-2007

Contact Communications:
(202) 289-7319

Washington, D.C. – Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, issued the following statement:

“The 2-1 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Parker v. District of Columbia striking down the District of Columbia’s handgun law is judicial activism at its worst. By disregarding nearly seventy years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, two Federal judges have negated the democratically-expressed will of the people of the District of Columbia and deprived this community of a gun law it enacted thirty years ago and still strongly supports.

“This ruling represents the first time in American history that a Federal appeals court has struck down a gun law on Second Amendment grounds. While acknowledging that ‘reasonable restrictions’ to promote ‘the government’s interest in public safety’ are permitted by the Second Amendment, the two-judge majority substituted its policy preferences for those of the elected representatives of the District of Columbia. ”

News flash for the Brady Campaign, it is kind of the job of judges to rule on the constitutionality of laws, regardless of if they were a "democratically expressed will of the people" and "still strongly supported".

And by "reasonable restrictions", I guess the Brady Campaign means:

The law banned residents from owning handguns, automatic firearms, and high-capacity semi-automatic firearms, as well as prohibited possession of unregistered firearms. Exceptions to the ban were allowed for police officers and guns registered before 1976. The law also required firearms kept in the home to be "unloaded, disassembled, or bound by a trigger lock or similar device

Because the act was so very effective in controlling violent crimes and murders.

In unrelated news, Washington D.C. ranked number 1 in violent crimes and murder per 100,000 residents for the years 2004 and 2005. For violent crime, D.C. had 1459 crimes per 100,000 residents almost double 2nd place South Carolina which had 761, 3rd place Tennessee had 753, Florida 708, Maryland 703. For murder, D.C. had 35 per 100,000, 3.5 times 2nd place, Maryland and Louisiana each had 10, Nevada and Alabama had 8.