Cite as: 514 U. S. 549 (1995)
Souter, J., dissenting
sequence, either directly or indirectly, of commercial activity. In my judgment, Congress' power to regulate commerce in firearms includes the power to prohibit possession of guns at any location because of their potentially harmful use; it necessarily follows that Congress may also prohibit their possession in particular markets. The market for the possession of handguns by school-age children is, distressingly, substantial.* Whether or not the national interest in eliminating that market would have justified federal legislation in 1789, it surely does today.
Justice Souter, dissenting.
In reviewing congressional legislation under the Commerce Clause, we defer to what is often a merely implicit congressional judgment that its regulation addresses a subject substantially affecting interstate commerce "if there is any rational basis for such a finding." Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Assn., Inc., 452 U. S. 264, 276 (1981); Preseault v. ICC, 494 U. S. 1, 17 (1990); see Maryland v. Wirtz, 392 U. S. 183, 190 (1968), quoting Katzenbach v. McClung, 379 U. S. 294, 303-304 (1964). If that congressional determination is within the realm of reason, "the only remaining question for judicial inquiry is whether 'the means chosen by Congress [are] reasonably adapted to the end permitted by the Constitution.' " Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Assn., Inc., supra, at 276, quoting Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, 379 U. S. 241, 262 (1964); see also Preseault v. ICC, supra, at 17.1
*Indeed, there is evidence that firearm manufacturers—aided by a federal grant—are specifically targeting schoolchildren as consumers by distributing, at schools, hunting-related videos styled "educational materials for grades four through 12," Herbert, Reading, Writing, Reloading, N. Y. Times, Dec. 14, 1994, p. A23, col. 1.
1 In this case, no question has been raised about means and ends; the only issue is about the effect of school zone guns on commerce.
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