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Gun control is one of the most commonly proposed methods for reducing violent crime. Defined narrowly, it is the enactment and enforcement of laws regulating firearms. More broadly, it is any organized effort to regulate firearms, which could also encompass civil suits aimed at the firearms industry and voluntary gun turn-ins and buybacks.

Americans support a wide array of moderate regulatory controls aimed at keeping guns away from criminals, juveniles, and other high-risk groups but oppose prohibitionist controls that would preclude them from legally acquiring or owning guns. As a result, the United States has many gun control laws but virtually none that ban guns or seriously limit access to guns among noncriminal adults. Although three large cities--Washington, D.C., Chicago, and New York City--effectively ban the private possession of handguns, no federal or state laws ban ownership of all guns or even just handguns.

Federal gun laws are less numerous and less restrictive than those prevailing in most states. Under federal law, all persons in the regular business of selling guns must have a federal firearms dealer's license. Anyone purchasing a gun of any kind from a licensed dealer must pass a background check for a criminal conviction and other disqualifying attributes. A convicted felon cannot legally purchase a gun, and a dealer cannot sell a gun to a felon. It is illegal for a convicted felon to possess a gun of any kind, regardless of how it was obtained. It is also unlawful, everywhere in the United States, for a juvenile to possess a handgun and for a dealer to sell a gun to a juvenile. Deliberately, no national policy exists for a national registry of guns, as gun owners fear its potential use to facilitate the mass confiscation of guns. Perhaps the most significant limitation of federal gun law is that gun transfers between private persons (i.e., no licensed dealer is involved) are not subject to any background check.

Each of the 50 states has a different array of gun laws. While some states have controls stricter than the average level prevailing among democracies outside the United States, others have only limited controls. No state bans the private possession of guns, or of handguns. A few states ban the purchase or possession of certain models of semi-automatic firearms (loosely labeled "assault weapons") that fire just one shot at a time but that look like, or were adapted from, military guns that could fire like machine guns. Almost all states forbid possession or purchase of handguns by convicted felons and juveniles, and most also do so with respect to various other higher-risk categories of persons, such as mentally ill persons and illicit drug users.

Some states require a permit to purchase a handgun, and a few of these also require a permit to buy a long gun (rifle or shotgun). Although many states require the reporting of gun sales to state or local authorities, only a few have state-mandated handgun registration systems, and even fewer also register long guns. Some states require a minimum waiting period of anywhere from 1 to 14 days before buyers may take delivery of handguns; a few of these states also mandate waiting periods for long guns.

There are also diverse laws governing the concealed carrying of firearms in public places. In more than two thirds of the states, adult residents without a criminal record may get a permit allowing a concealed gun. In a few states, concealed carrying by civilians is completely forbidden, whereas in the remaining states, permits are technically available at the discretion of authorities but rarely granted in practice, making these states effectively identical to those banning the carrying of guns.

Bibliography:

1) Bruce-Briggs, Barry. 1976. "The Great American Gun War." The Public Interest 45:37-62.

2) Kleck, Gary. 1997. Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

3) Kleck, Gary and E. Britt Patterson. 1993. "The Impact of Gun Control and Gun Ownership Levels on Violence Rates." Journal of Quantitative Criminology 9:249-88.

4) Newton, George D. and Franklin Zimring. 1969. Firearms and Violence in American Life: A Staff Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

5) Vizzard, William J. 2000. Shots in the Dark: The Policy, Politics, and Symbolism of Gun Control. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

6) Wright, James D. and Peter H. Rossi. 1986. Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

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