An overview examines the major issues under discussion, including the Second Amendment provisions regarding the right to keep and bear arms; the relevance of race, ethnicity, and gender to an understanding of the gun issue; police attitudes about gun ownership; self-defense and gun policy; the product liability issue and its relationship to gun control; and the question of whether the issue is crime control or gun control. Major events directly or indirectly related to the current controversy are summarized, and State and Federal laws, court cases, and laws are described. Annotated lists of major publications and nonprint materials on the issue and descriptions of organizations having a direct or tangential interest in the matter are also supplied. Reference notes, glossary, and index