Mantel, Barbara. Gun Control: Should lawmakers tighten firearm restrictions? CQ Researcher March 8, 2013. The debate over gun control has been inescapable since last December, when Adam Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., before taking his own life in one of the nation's most horrific mass shootings. There have been marches and protests, Super Bowl advertisements, emotional and contentious congressional and state hearings and a new, tough gun-control law in New York state. Polls show broad bipartisan public support for expanding background checks to include private gun purchases, although support is weaker and more polarized for a ban on assault-style weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. Yet momentum may be fading in Congress for passage of any new gun-control legislation as members grapple with the federal government's looming debt limit and this month's automatic budget cuts.From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.
Jost, Kenneth. "Gun Rights Debate." CQ Researcher 31 Oct. 2008. The Supreme Court gave gun rights advocates a major victory on June 26, recognizing for the first time an individual right under the Second Amendment to own and possess firearms. The 5-4 decision struck down a handgun ban adopted by the District of Columbia in 1976. Gun rights advocates the very same day began challenging
