The Obama Administration says it is. Personally, I confess I don't know. I have almost no acquaintance with guns. My instinct tells me that gun control is not the answer; control of criminals is. Yet it certainly seems that those most in favor of controlling guns are the same people least in favor of controlling criminals.
But let's assume that the Obama Administration is correct, and that gun control is the answer. That would not demonstrate, however, that we need more gun control laws. It might more peruasively suggest that we should do a better job of enforcing the ones we have.
But guess what. Under President Obama, gun prosecutions are down by between 25% and 50% from the Bush Administration. This little known fact was discussed today by two of the Senate's brightest members, Jeff Sessions and our friend Ted Cruz.
Powerline has the story.
Has anyone studied the gun seizure rate following Arizona v. Gant? I have presumed that the number of seizures of illegal guns from felons would drop but I have no data to support that presumption. Anyone?
Gun control is not the only answer but it is part of the answer, as is controlling criminals, as you've pointed out. The NRA's extreme position against any sort of gun control (including universal background checks, magazine limits, cop-killer bullets, gun-purchases-per-month limits, etc.) leaves them on the fringe--even with their own members. A recent poll showed that 91% of Americans support universal background checks, as did 80% of NRA members! Yet, the NRA's leadership is still opposed to them.
I'm law and order as can be, pro-death penalty for instance. However, truth be told, I don't trust the average person with an automobile. So, I'm certainly not going to trust the average yahoo with a gun. The very least that we can do to cut down on gun deaths in the US (and I'm not talking about perfect solutions here that would eliminate all gun-related murders) is to have some reasonable gun control, as Justice Scalia specifically allowed for in the Heller decision, and that the majority of Americans, as demonstrated by various polls, agree upon.