Research on persons who tend to use guns to injure others suggests that gun control laws should restrict gun possession among persons with prior records of violence rather than among the general public. To avoid inadvertently encouraging the substitution of deadlier weapons, gun control should be applied equally to all types of firearms, not just to handguns or 'Saturday Night Specials.' Beyond amending the Gun Control Act of 1968 to make evasion of State gun control laws more difficult, additional Federal legislation is unnecessary, given the varying need for gun control among the States. Since research shows that low priority is given to the enforcement of gun laws, any additional gun control laws should rely primarily on voluntary compliance. Criminals obtain their guns primarily through private, quasi-legal transfers from private parties rather than from licensed dealers, black market enterprises, or through theft. Such transfers might be minimized by establishing civil liability for damages resulting from an illegal gun transfer to an ineligible recipient. 111 footnotes.