AT ISSUE:
• Gun Bans: All firearms Handguns "Saturday Night Specials" Assault weapons
• Banning certain types of ammunition sales
• Concealed Carry firearms
• Child-safety locks on guns.
• Background Checks & Brady Law
• Dealer Sales
• Private Sales
• Waiting periods for purchasing firearms
• Mental health checks as part of background check.
• Registration & licensing of all 65 million handguns in the U.S.
• Limitations on private resale of firearms
• Age limits for ownership of firearms
• Limiting individual buyers to one per month.
• Permit/limit lawsuits against gun manufacturers for crimes committed with guns

In The Far Corners:

Guns are instruments of destruction. Their purpose is to kill or do grievous bodily injury. Prohibit future sales and ban private ownership of firearms.

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Under the Second Amendment to the Constitution, we have a right to protect our families and our property. No prohibitions or restrictions on firearm ownership.

OVERVIEW

In general, only the most radical factions favor no restrictions or controls whatsoever on gun purchase, useage or ownership. Those politicians and parties identified with the right tend to prefer tougher criminal penalties for use of guns during the commission of a crime and more education for the masses in the safe and appropriate use of guns. Some argue that a universally armed citizenry will discourage violent crime. Political parties and politicians identified more with the left prefer strong regulation and registration, limitations on the number and type of firearms available for sale. Background checks and waiting periods are also favored. The argument here is that the more guns are available, the more they will be used to commit violent crimes.

STATISTICS

• 40% of all US homes have guns
• Number of Guns in the U.S.: Approximately 200 million firearms, 60-65 million handguns
• Number of Gun Owners in the U.S.: 60-65 million; 30-35 million of these own handgun
• In 1996, 140 children died after being accidentally shot. This represents approximately 2% of all fatal accidents among children. Other accident types accounted for a greater share of fatalities among children, including motor vehicle (47%), drowning (15%), fires (12%), and choking on ingested object (3.3%).
• The number of fatal firearm accidents among children in 1996 represents a 75% decrease from the all time high of 550 in 1975.
• In 1998, about 65% of all murders, 32% of all robberies, and 19% of all aggravated assaults that were reported to the police were committed with a firearm.
• In 1997, the last year for which there are statistics available, guns were used in 17,566 suicides, compared with 13,522 homicides, according to the National Vital Statistics Report.
• 91% of Americans say that there should be at least minor restrictions on gun ownership
• 57% of Americans say that there should be major restrictions or a ban.
• 85% of Americans believe people should have the right to use firearms to defend themselves in their homes.
• 64% favor allowing law-abiding citizens to carry firearms for personal protection outside their homes.
(Source: Bureau of Justice)

• In 1996 about 41% of the deaths that resulted from firearms injuries were homicides, 53% were suicides, 3% were unintentional, and 2% were of undetermined intent.
• The fatal firearm accident per capita rate fell to an all-time low in 1996. The new rate, 0.4 per 100,000 people, represents an 88% decrease from the all-time high recorded in 1904, and is well below rates for other types of fatal accidents. Motor vehicles accounted for 16.3 deaths per 100,000 people, falls 5.6, poisonings 3.6, drowning 1.3, fires 1.4, choking on an ingested object 1.2 and medical mistakes 1.1.
(Source: National Center for Health Statistics)

• States that had the Brady Act's waiting period imposed upon them had worse violent crime trends thereafter, compared to other states. New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC have very restrictive gun laws but account for 13% of U.S. murders while representing only 5% of the population.
• States that have right-to-carry laws have lower violent crime and homicide rates on average, compared to the rest of the country. RTC states have a 24% lower total violent crime rate, a 19% lower homicide rate, a 39% lower robbery rate, and a 19% lower aggravated assault rate, compared to the rest of the country. Thirty-one states now have right-to-carry laws permitting law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms for protection. Twenty-two states have adopted right-to-carry laws in the last ten years, 11 of those in the last three years. Half the U.S. population, including 60% of handgun owners, live in right-to-carry states.
• About 99.8% of firearms and more than 99.6% of handguns will not be used to commit violent crimes in any given year.
(Source: FBI Data)

• According to a study by Professor John R. Lott, Jr. and David B. Mustard, of the University of Chicago, "Allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crimes, and it appears to produce no increase in accidental deaths. If those states which did not have right-to-carry concealed gun provisions had adopted them in 1992, approximately 1,570 murders; 4,177 rapes; and over 60,000 aggravated assaults would have been avoided yearly..." (1998)

For a look at the way both sides of the issue manipulate the statistics to suit their own viewpoints, check out this article which appeared in the Denver Post.

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. (1791)

ANALYSIS

Gun Control is one of those rare issues where the extreme left and the extreme right tend to meet in a common bottom line: Keep your regulatory hands off my guns! The philosophies and reasons for holding this bottom line diverge wildly, but the essential belief in the need for and inalienable right of private citizens to keep and bear arms is much the same. However, most Americans are not on the radical fringe and a remarkably high percentage of those surveyed support some form of gun control. We'd guess that most Americans are, justifiably, afraid of violent crimes.

Rightly or wrongly (depending on how you interpret the statistics) the average citizen links firearms useage and possession to the frequency and commission of these crimes. The fear is pervasive enough that only the most obtuse political candidate will fail to pay lip service to countering that fear. Most candidates will espouse whatever set of firearms restrictions that their party's constituency clamors for. Over the last decade, the clamor has been for increasing restrictions in a number of areas, including sales, registration and waiting periods. American culture is prone to fear-based legislation which means that some form of gun control is here to stay.