Public Opinion.

Throughout the 1990s political parties established policy positions on gun control in their platforms, politicians vigorously campaigned on one side or the other of the gun-control issue, and interest groups lobbied Congress and the courts to increase or reduce restrictions on firearms ownership. The controversy centered around the need to curb crime, on one hand, and the Second Amendment right to bear arms, on the other. Pro-guncontrol advocates claimed that the scales must be slightly tipped in favor of maintaining public order. Antigun-control proponents argued that law-abiding citizens have the constitutional right to protect themselves and their property with firearms. The issue, however, involved more than public and private security. At times, gun control became a Tenth Amendment issue. Some states contended that the federal government overstepped its bounds when it attempted to mandate that states perform background checks before allowing citizens...