Proponents of strict gun control laws argue that reducing the number of crimes committed with guns would save lives. Each year in the United States, more than 35,000 people are killed by guns, a death rate much higher than that in any other industrial nation. Attacks involving a gun are five times more likely to result in a death than are similar attacks made with a knife. In 1997 guns were the weapons used in approximately 70 percent of the murders in the United States. However, gun control laws are controversial. While gun control laws may decrease criminals" access to guns, the same laws restrict law-abiding citizens. .

             About half of all U.S. families own at least one gun. The most frequent motives for gun ownership are protecting the home, hunting or target shooting, and collecting. Gun control laws aim to reduce the criminal use of guns as much as possible while not putting large burdens on legitimate gun users (Encarta). One statistic that illustrates the problem posed is the nation"s murder rate. In 1993, the most recent year for which national data are available, 23,271 Americans were murdered. Of that, gun killings number 16,189 or 69.6 percent. On average, one man, woman, or child is killed or wounded by a gun every 32.5 minutes in the United States. Likewise, Americans use guns to a major extent in other kinds of violent crime. By violent crime, the U.S Department of Justice means murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. In 1993, for example, 1,135,099 cases of aggravated assault were reported in the United States. Of this number, 284,910, or 25.1 percent, involved the use of some kind of firearm (Kruschke 16). Most attempts to reduce gun proliferation have relied on governmental regulation. However, in the late 1990s gun control advocates attempted to use financial sanctions, rather than regulation, to minimize gun violence. Several cities filed lawsuits against gun manufacturers and distributors, arguing that gun dealers should pay for the cities" increased cost of law enforcement and health care resulting from gun violence.