ABSTRACT
Changes in national gun policy have been relatively rare, yet have demarcated critical moments of the national gun debate. Starting with the first comprehensive national gun law enacted in 1934 as nationwide, gangster-fueled crime peaked, to a new national law passed in 1968 that responded to a rising tide of urban violence and political assassinations, to laws in 1986, 1993, and 1994, the national government responded with ever more incremental laws that prompted ever more turbulent politics. Federal laws in 1986 and 2005 rolled back government restrictions. Modern efforts to enact new federal regulations in the last twenty years have fallen short, although pressure on Congress to take action has yielded some results. The federal agency charged with administering gun laws, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, has been subject to sustained efforts to restrict its power and resources, as has the Centers for Disease Control.
