Should gun control be tightened in the United States?

A number of states have strong gun control laws. Other states are quite lenient as to who can get or have a gun, or buy or sell one. There are often different rules for handguns than for rifles.

The states with strict laws (like New York) continue to have a problem with illegal guns simply because people can buy guns much more easily in other states and then bring the guns into New York. So until there are federal laws (or coordinated state laws) concerning the sale of guns, it's very hard to keep "bad guys" from getting guns. Nearly everyone is in favor of the idea that "bad guys" should not have guns.

Few people support the idea that even "bad guys" should have guns -- indeed, one of the primary reasons people give for owning guns concerns self-defense against "bad guys with guns." Ergo, it is bad for bad guys to have guns. Right?

Then the problem is this: who is "bad?" Personally, as someone who dislikes guns, I'd like stupid people, paranoids and bigots also prohibited from owning guns -- but I know there is little chance of stretching the term "bad" to include all the types of hate-filled cretins who seem to really love their guns and who seem to ache to kill someone with their guns. I'm sad but am willing to be a bit practical.

Basically, if there are fewer guns out there and it's harder to obtain one, "bad guys" of whatever specified groups will have a harder time getting guns and causing havoc. That sounds like a good idea. Such laws could be common sense rules such as background checks so that felons, people with a history of mental health problems, and possibly certain other classes of people (say people with a history of domestic violence or child abuse) who might be likely to misuse firearms.

Or the laws could be more comprehensive to limit military type weapons to professional officers of the law and the army. There is quite a good range of possible laws that would make society safer. I'd like all guns to be registered, with their ballistics recorded, so that every gun crime could be traced more quickly to the perp -- or to the last owner.

That would also make owners more likely to safely store their guns, to prevent theft -- and further keep bad guys from getting guns. That sounds like a good idea, to me. I wonder at those who think such measures are a problem, as it seems to me that the problem is the lack of such measures.

Despite what the paranoids suggest, there is no imminent likelihood of the government coming to take all the guns from responsible, law-abiding, non-violent folk who enjoy shooting or who feel more secure with a gun in the house. (Not that having a gun in the house actually makes them safer -- statistics show that a gun in the house increases the chance of someone in the house being shot.) It is my hope that, eventually, the gun nuts will be viewed in the same way as bigots now generally are and treated like smokers now generally are -- with lots of rules and some distaste and distrust. Probably won't happen in my lifetime, though.

Well hey let's ban religions as well, nothing about the First Amendment should be mentioned, we'll just say it is a non-issue. You can't just say that part of the Foundation of the Nation doesn't count any more. The US citizens won't allow the gun control some want.

The SENSIBLE ideas won't work because the NRA won't let them and the voters won't stop voting for the idiots that are in the NRA's pocket.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.