There are three main aspects of the gun control controversy: sociological, ethical, and legal. The sociological aspect is the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness that gun control laws have on reducing violent crimes. The ethical aspect is the protection of the United States citizens and protecting them from crime. The legal issues revolve mainly around the Second Amendment and how it is interpreted, and the laws and regulations associated with it (Lee).

	Gun control activists blame the wide use and availability of lethal weapons for the United States’ high murder and crime rates. There are over 30,000 deaths resulting from gunfire every year. More than half are murders, a little less than half are suicides and the rest are fatal accidents. Several hundred of these victims are children (Ballaro). Gunfire deaths from 1980 to 1997 equaled close to four hundred thousand. That is more than the casualties from WWI and WWII combined, and would equal the death toll of nearly eight Vietnams (Harwood). The United States has some of the highest gun-related violence rates in the developed world. This is due to the number of guns Americans own, the availability of extremely powerful and lethal guns, and the lack of comprehensive, uniform laws. If gun control laws limited the availability of guns, it would lower homicide rates. Just as the now regular use of bicycle helmets has greatly reduced the amount of head trauma injuries (Ballaro). 

	One of the biggest reasons for the United States’ shockingly high gun-related violence rates is the sheer amount of firearms owned. One in three homes has guns. The total amount of arms in the United States is close to two hundred and forty million (Ballaro). American citizens own between fifty and seventy million handguns. Handguns escalate disputes into fatal incidents because they are easy to conceal and transport (Harwood). Supporters of gun control state that the formation of the National Guard over a hundred years ago nullified any need for militias, and the all-out legality of guns should be questioned (Bowman).

	The police force in the United States is in danger from the large arsenal of weapons and the overwhelming lack of gun control legislation. In 1997 the Los Angeles police were authorized to carry assault rifles after a shootout with gunmen armed with AK-47s. In September of 2007 the Miami police chief John Timoney made the same decision. He said the decision was undesirable, but mandatory due to fact that the criminals his men faced wielded extremely high caliber weapons. In the previous year fifteen of the seventy-nine gun related homicides involved assault weapons (Ballaro). Criminologist Franklin Zimring and Gordon Hawkins of the University of California conducted a large-scale study on gun related violence and homicide in the United States compared to other countries. They discovered that the United States have similar crime rates as other developed countries, but much higher homicide rates (Harwood). The gun violence seemed to correlate to the stringency of gun control laws of each of the countries. 