According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the murder rate of blacks by blacks for males aged 15 to 24 is 73 per 100,000 population, compared with 12.5 per 100,000 for the same age group of white males. Quick resort to physical combat as a measure of daring, courage, or defense of status is apparently a cultural expectation within the black community. When such a cultural-norm response is elicited from an individual engaged in social interplay with others who harbor the same response mechanism, physical assaults, altercations, and violent domestic quarrels that result in homicide are likely to be relatively common. Gun prohibition may be unconstitutional; however, gun regulation and control exist in many sections of the Nation. Enforcement of current gun laws will reduce the number of guns available for violent use. A current handgun law in all U.S. jurisdictions regulates the carrying of concealed weapons. Since many firearm incidents occur outside the home and with the use of handguns, keeping the streets free from handguns should reduce the homicide rate to a significant degree. A strict permit system or a ban on private possession of handguns would significantly alter the firearms habits of law-abiding citizens, who would then turn to safer, long guns for self-protection. Although enforcing and modifying current guns laws will not eliminate firearms deaths, the banning of cheap handguns and the enforcement of current guns laws is an appropriate beginning.