Advocacy for completely banning sales and purchase of firearms is unfounded, unreasonable, and unpopular, except among certain leftist minorities.
The essential issue of gun control is preventing the criminals and the insane from obtaining firearms while not preventing level-headed, law-biding citizens from purchasing firearms.
The controversy: how do we do that.
In the United States, the system of gun control is frighteningly asymmetric, ineffective, and overbearing. Criminals purchase weapons illegally with ease, while massive amounts of red tape often prevent law biding citizens from purchasing even a .22LR handgun. In some places dominated by certain leftist groups, firearms are almost completely legally unobtainable.
The most prevalent method by which the government attempts to distinguish between the criminals, the insane, and the law-biding is the background check. But how much of this intrusive practice should a law-biding citizen be subjected to in order to purchase a firearm? How can one be sure with any amount of screening that the government would accurately identify the criminals and the insane?
If we had more thorough background checks that would successfully identify the criminals and insane, the only result would be an expansion in the illegal firearms trade, and the invasion of the privacy of only the law-biding citizens.
But is there any alternative method by which we can single out the individuals who would abuse firearms?