Gun control

Introduction
Slave codes and the “wild west”
Federal gun laws in the 1900s
Federal and state gun laws: 2000-2019
2020 COVID-19 pandemic
Federal actions: 2021 forward
The NRA and gun rights lobby
The gun control lobby
Public opinion
Pros
- Pro 1: Gun control laws are needed, because the Second Amendment is not an unlimited, individual right to own guns.
- Pro 2: More gun control laws would reduce gun deaths.
- Pro 3: The presence of a gun makes a conflict more likely to become violent.
- Pro 4: A majority of adults, including gun owners, support commonsense gun control measures.
Cons
- Con 1: The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects individual gun ownership.
- Con 2: Gun control laws are discriminatory and infringe on citizens’ rights.
- Con 3: Gun control laws simply do not work.
- Con 4: Gun control laws give too much power to the government and may spur government tyranny.
State-level constitutional right to bear arms
Guns and the U.S. Supreme Court timeline
- March 27, 1876 - United States v. Cruikshank
- January 4, 1886 - Presser v. Illinois
- May 15, 1939 - United States v. Miller
- March 26, 1974 - Huddleston v. United States
- June 6, 1977 - Scarborough v. United States
- February 27, 1980 - Lewis v. United States
- March 26, 1985 - Ball v. United States
- May 24, 1993 - Smith v. United States
- May 16, 1994 - Beecham v. United States
- November 30, 1994 - Staples v. United States
- December 6, 1995 - Robinson v. United States
- June 8, 1998 - Muscarello v. United States
- June 22, 1998 - Caron v. United States
- June 15, 1998 - Bryan v. United States
- June 5, 2000 - Castillo v. United States
- April 26, 2005 - Small v. United States
- June 26, 2008 - D.C. v. Heller
- February 24, 2009 - United States v. Hayes
- May 24, 2010 - United States v. O’Brien
- June 28, 2010 - McDonald v. Chicago
- March 21, 2016 - Caetano v. Massachusetts
- June 27, 2016 - Voisine v. United States
- February 20, 2018 - Jeff Silvester, et al v. Kamala Harris
- June 21, 2019 - Rehaif v. United States
- April 27, 2020 - New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York
- June 15, 2020 - U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Almost 12 Gun Control Cases
- June 23, 2022 - New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen
- June 21, 2024 - United States v. Rahimi
- June 14, 2024 - Garland v. Cargill
- March 4, 2025 - Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos
- March 26, 2025 - Bondi v. VanDerStok
U.S. mass shootings
International civilian gun ownership rates
International firearm death rates
U.S. gun deaths by year
- Firearm deaths by suicide by age, 2001-2023
  - Ages 10-49
  - Ages 50-85+ and total deaths
- Firearm homicides by age, 2001-2023
  - Ages 0-44
  - Ages 45-85+ and total deaths
- Unintentional firearm deaths by age, 2001-2023
  - Ages 0-44
  - Ages 45-85+ and total deaths
- Legal intervention firearm deaths by Age, 2001-2023
  - Ages 15-44
  - Ages 45-69 and total deaths
- Firearm deaths with undetermined intent by age, 2001-2023
  - Ages 0-44
  - Ages 45-74 and Total Deaths
U.S. leading methods of suicide, homicide, and unintentional death
- Leading methods of suicide, 2001-2023
- Leading methods of homicide, 2001-2023
- Leading methods of unintentional death, 2001-2023
Assessment quiz
1-minute survey
Discussion questions
Sources

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

Painting by William Barnes Wollen showing Minutemen firing at advancing British soldiers across Lexington Common, with colonial buildings and smoke in the background.

Scene from Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), with three men in cowboy hats facing four men across a dusty street in front of wooden buildings, with an O.K. Corral sign visible.

Gangland Chicago

St. Valentine's Day Massacre

Kennedy Assassination

Black-and-white photo of the University of Texas clock tower with smoke rising from a window below the clock, marking the location of the 1966 sniper attack by Charles Whitman.

Pres. Reagan shot

School shooting

Gun control: Media

Should more gun control laws be enacted?

Images

Gun control

Should more gun control laws be enacted?

© niyazz/stock.adobe.com

Painting by William Barnes Wollen showing Minutemen firing at advancing British soldiers across Lexington Common, with colonial buildings and smoke in the background.

Minutemen of the American Revolution

The Battle of Lexington, 19 April 1775, oil on canvas by William Barns Wollen,...

© Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Scene from Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), with three men in cowboy hats facing four men across a dusty street in front of wooden buildings, with an O.K. Corral sign visible.

The Wild West

Scene from Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), film directed by John Sturges,...

© 1957 Paramount Pictures Corporation

Gangland Chicago

Gangland Chicago

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Chicago, Feb. 14, 1929.

© Keystone-France—Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

St. Valentine's Day Massacre

St. Valentine's Day Massacre

Reenactment of the massacre by law enforcement investigating the gangland shooting,...

© Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News Collection/Chicago History Museum—Archive Photos/Getty Images

Kennedy Assassination

Kennedy Assassination

Lee Harvey Oswald standing outside his home and holding Russian newspaper and the...

Everett Collection/age fotostock

Black-and-white photo of the University of Texas clock tower with smoke rising from a window below the clock, marking the location of the 1966 sniper attack by Charles Whitman.

Texas mass shooting

Smoke rising from sniper Charles Whitman's gun as he fires from the clock tower of...

© Bettmann/Getty Images

Pres. Reagan shot

Pres. Reagan shot

The attempted assassination of U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan by John W. Hinckley, Jr.,...

Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library

School shooting

School shooting

Children being escorted from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut,...

John Angelillo—UPI/Alamy

Glock pistol

Glock pistol

Gun laws are as old as gun ownership.

AdstockRF

Interactives

Infographic showing mass shootings in the United States since 1982, including a US map of locations, annual counts, fatality numbers, weapon types, shooter demographics, and a timeline of major incidents.

mass shootings in the United States

Graph depicting the number of mass shootings in the United States by year.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Kenny Chmielewski

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