What is gun control?

Here in Canada, gun control is a means of ensuring that only law abiding citizens legally entitled to own firearms can access them; and that all gun-owning citizens are trained in how to safely handle and secure their weapons so they will habitually, always do both those things.

This is accomplished by mandatory firearms safety training for all would-be gun owners.

Similar to driver's ed, it comprises both practical and classroom instruction and testing.

Those who pass - and pass mandatory police background checks - are legally licensed to buy guns.

And, same as drivers who want to drive different types of vehicles (cars, transport trucks, motorcycles, & etc) are required to have separate permits for each, there's separate licenses required to own different classes of firearms (regular shotguns & hunting rifles, pistols, assault rifles, & etc.)

That's what gun control is up here. It works for us since all of Canada has roughly the same amount of gun deaths per year (homicides, accidents & suicides) as just one US city: Chicago.

Americans and other nationalities will, of course, have different attitudes about what is (or isn't) gun control.

For some, it's nothing short of total bans on all citizen gun ownership.

For others, it's only background checks to prevent criminals and crazies from buying weapons.

For yet more, it's simply taking the time to aim so they only hit whoever they mean to shoot when they fire.

So you'll get as many different definitions as there are people on the planet to a question like yours.

Just controlling guns.

Gun control covers a wide range of issues. From registration, to restricted buying, to restricted magazines, to requirements that they must be carried unloaded until needed, there are lots of types of gun control. Most countries, except the US, use a combination of types. Which is why the US has the highest death by gun rate of any of any civilized country. And contrary to what gun fanatics would have you believe, none of the countries have been overrun by their governments.

I am in favor of laws against straw buyers, registration, forbidding felons and family abusers, etc., from buying them, which they wouldn't be able to do without the straw buyers. I am in favor of requiring that all personal guns be kept locked in a safe, since so many of the guns on the street were stolen. I kind of like the Swiss law that requires you to prove you are in physical danger or work in a threatening job to buy a handgun.

It doesn't matter what I or anyone else says, though, to those who worship their guns as if they will save them from everything.

Gun control is laws that limit what guns you may have own or use. Like were I live you can not own a med. weapon as those are for military use only. Only the same guns as civilian police are allowed to own and use under equal rights for the police. So nothing bigger than .44 cal or 12 guage in a shotgun. Full auto is ok as the police have them. Were I live.

I am for background checks, including at all gun shows. I own several firearms and have no fear of a background check, but cons reject the very notion. Either they can't pass one, or have enough paranoia to think it gives the government an easier way to come "take their guns." Some of them say it just gives the government a way to keep track of you. As though the government can't keep track of you if you have a Social Security number, ever used a debit or credit card, or simply exist. Can't fix stupid.

Knowing whether and when to pull out your weapon. Then hitting your target.

I oppose keeping people from having guns for a long list of historical reasons.

When I have discussed the matter with enough people it seems to me that those who want to keep people away from guns do not trust the general citizenry to have guns. Your distrust is not a justification.

Being able to hit the center ring 10 out of 10

I'm all for it

Preventing me from buying the gun I want when I want it

I'm totally against it

Gun control is IRRELEVANT in an American context. The gun manufacturing companies and the National Rifle Association have such a powerful lobby, no strong gun law can ever get through Congress, and most gun control laws get defeated at the state level, too.

I personally think it's insane for large numbers of Americans to carry handguns in big cities, or to dream of doing so. It's a perfect recipe for an ugly break down of law and order, in which a lot of innocent people keep getting killed.

But talking about "gun control" in the United States only mobilizes the Right Wing conservatives and libertarians. They get everybody scared about the "threat" of liberal do-gooders or the imaginary risk of Obama becoming world dictator, then they get conservative Republicans elected who want to defund the Social Security system, force low-income Americans to eat garbage or do drug dealing to make a living, and wreck the national parks system.

"Gun control" in an American context is a sucker's game for well-meaning liberals. For conservatives who want to destroy what remains of the New Deal liberal government that brought this country 40 years of prosperity, gun control is a perfect "wedge issue" that inspires many middle-class Americans to vote against our own best interests, and to elect corporate propagandists who will take away our jobs and our income security.

-- democratic socialist

Every time gun control has been tried in history it has led to more people dying. Gun Control= no peace in our time

Control of guns.