FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 3, 2021
MEDIA CONTACT:
Alyson Malinger, West End Strategy Team
amalinger@westendstrategy.com, 917-935-7311
NYSRPA Arguments Ignore Data, Facts on Guns
Gun violence prevention experts: “striking down the reasonable safety measures at question in this case would increase gun deaths”
WASHINGTON — The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence reacted today to the arguments before the Supreme Court in NYSRPA v. Bruen by urging the justices to consider the reality of public health data on gun violence when deciding the case.
Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence Law & Policy Staff Attorney Tim Carey issued the following statement:
“During today’s arguments we heard justices repeatedly ask the parties what legal framework should be applied in determining the constitutionality of gun violence prevention laws, but no clear answer emerged. We did not hear enough about the public health evidence and specifically the real consequences of overturning the law in question. The data clearly shows us that striking down the reasonable safety measures at question in this case would increase gun death and injury.
“Gun violence is a public health epidemic. Each year, guns kill nearly 40,000 Americans, 1 in 10 of which are children and teens. Based on study after study we know that increased carrying of guns in public is associated with increased gun violence.
“All the standards debated today and in the briefs for this case– text, history and tradition; the two-part test; and dangerousness — involve a level of interpretation and subjectivity. A text, history and tradition test may, for example, ask courts to determine whether regulations of founding era firearms are sufficiently similar to regulations of AR-15s, without regard to the underlying legislative intent of such regulations to reduce firearm death and injury. Public health data anchors this debate in facts and the reality of gun violence.
“Like all public health issues, the court should rely on hard data and other evidence-based considerations when weighing a decision of this magnitude.”
The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence was the lead author of an amicus brief signed by 35 other public health experts and gun violence prevention organizations that argues that the New York state licensing law at stake in the NYSRPA case should not be overturned. The brief offers a new, evidence-based critique of the gun violence epidemic, framing it as a public health issue and focusing on the risks — supported in hard data — of carrying and possessing a firearm in public. The brief incorporates findings from issue-area experts and, at its core, argues that public health data is indispensable when reaching legal determinations about firearm possession and usage.
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About the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence (EFSGV) develops and advocates for evidence-based solutions to reduce gun injury and death in all its forms. EFSGV uses a public health and equity lens to identify and implement evidence-based policy solutions and programs to reduce gun violence in all its forms and to make gun violence rare and abnormal. EFSGV is the gun violence prevention movement’s premier research intermediary and founder of the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy, a group of academics and practitioners who collaborate to develop innovative recommendations for policymakers.
