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Show DAILY Saturday, Match 15, 2008 HERALD Supreme Court will hear contentious ML gun case Evidence is unclear if Washington's handgun ban has prevented bloodshed land criminologists in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested t he gun ban had saved lives in .the decade before. They argued the ban had prev ent ed 47 deat hs per year in D.C, both suicides and law s weakness. Other criminologists said the study should nave compared the district to Baltimore, a city with similar crime problems where violence also declined during the same period. The authors murders. Surrounding areas in went back and compared the Maryland and Virginia had not district to other cities, includseen a corresponding drop in ing Baltimore, saying their conclusions still held up. gun crime. In the late 1990s, the annual The study analyzed data only through 1987, and did not homicide numbers began to fall incorporate the higher murder as the crack scourge ebbed. In rate during the crack surge, an the past decade, many of the epidemic critics said revealed city's neighborhoods also have 32-ye- ar trend. In 1977, the U.S. Conference of Mayors reported robberies, assaults and homicides using handguns had fallen sharply in D.C and concluded the ban was working. However, the results were challenged even by the city's police department, which said police tactics had contributed to the Stephen Manning .. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ' WASHINGTON On Sept. one of the toughest gun laws in the nation took effect in the District of Columbia, essentially outlawing the private ownership of new handguns in a city struggling with violence. Over the next few weeks, a man with a .32aliber pistol held up workers at a downtown federal office at midday, a cab driver was shot in the head, and a senator was mugged by three youths, one carrying a revolver, near the U.S. Capitol. Since the ban was passed, more than 8,400 people have been murdered in the district, many killed by handguns. Nearly 80 percent of the 181 murders in 2007 were committed with guns. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in a challenge to the city's handgun ban. The case is likely to produce the most important firearms ruling in generations and could undermine other gun control laws nationwide if the court takes an expansive view of the right 24, 1976, to bear arms. The central question is whether the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individuals to bear arms, or instead protects the collective right of states to maintain militias. The court probably won't base its ruling on the effectiveness of Washington's law. Outside the court, however, a drop. In the late 1980s and early murders spiked as Washington, like many other cities, was hit by the crack epidemic. By 1991, the number of homicides reached 479, or 81 deaths per 100,000 people, earning the city status as the nation's murder capital. Yet that year, a study released by University of Mary 1990s, undergone a revitalization. attracting more affluent residents. Last year, there were 181 murders. But the city's kxation re- t he ; mains a problem for the law, Washington is surrounded by Virginia and Maryland, where guns remain legal, and many firearms can be traced to shops just across the line, The number of guns seized by police has surged in recent years, reaching 2,924 in 2007, nearly 1,000 more than in 2003. Most of the guns were used in crimes. ST0REWIDE SAVINGS & VALUES NOW THROUGH SUNDAY TH S WEEKEND AT MACY'S FANTASTIC MATTRESS SETS AT TERRIFIC PRICES FROM FAMOUS NAMES fTXH X :K?A A AVA 1 THf SALE $449 Queen 2-p- set c. 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The law bars private ownership of handguns, with exceptions for law enforcement officers and those who had registered handguns before the ban took effect. Shotguns and rifles are legal, but must be disassembled or stored with trigger locks. Homicides in the district did ebb over the next few years, largely following a national set set King Reg. $1079 SALE $899 Sealy Posturepedic Summer Day Cushion Firm or Plush; Serta Perfect Sleeper Ellerson Plush Twin set set Queen well-place- set SALE $799 .. set Twin M $1729-5189- law-abidi- "1 should be able to live in the district and protect myself," said Shelly Parker, who said she was harassed and threatened in her former Capitol Hill home by a drug dealer who once tried to break down her door. Parker was a plaintiff in the original case against the city. Those who live daily with gun violence on Washington's streets, many of them just teens, paint a stark picture of how easy it is to get a firearm. 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