Broad approaches to gun control/regulation [View all]

[petronius]

As I read through all the posts today, I'm thinking that there are three basic approaches to gun control/regulation:

1. Controlling availability - this would be laws intended to keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them, including strategies like registration, background checks, and so on, as well as laws like restrictive CCW intended to keep guns out of public space,
   
   
2. Controlling lethality - things like 'assault weapons' bans that are intended to reduce the lethality/effectiveness of privately owned guns, and
   
   
3. Education - mandatory training like California's Handgun Safety Certificate, safety presentations in school, etc.

Since it seems like all of DU is talking guns these days, I'm wondering which of these areas seems like the most fruitful area for conversation - i.e., in which is it likely that some common ground on reasonable regulation might be found? And at the same time, which of these broad strategies has the greatest chance of being useful - creating improvements in public safety without unduly infringing on gun owners' rights? Or is it none and none?

My initial impression is that the education route has the least risk of controversy, and the best chance of reducing accidents but not crime. Controlling availability has the most 'power' but lots of pitfalls, and trying to control firearm lethality is the weakest route.

(And I apologize for not posting this in GD, LBN, Meta, Cooking & Baking, HoF, or any of the other new gungeon-annexes; I thought I'd be a rebel and put it here... )