Gun Control | featured news

Vice President Joe Biden butted heads with the powerful National Rifle Association on Thursday in his drive to reduce U.S. gun violence, drawing complaints from the lobby group that the White House is trying to limit constitutionally protected gun rights.

Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the White House plans to act quickly to curb gun violence and will explore all avenues - including executive orders that would not require the approval of Congress - to try to prevent incidents like last month's massacre at a Connecticut school.

The shootings in Newtown, Conn., two weeks ago sparked an intense reaction across the country, and opinion polls captured major changes in the way the public interprets such events and how strict gun laws should be but only minor shifts in support for specific policies.

Recalling the shooting of 20 first graders as the worst day of his presidency, President Barack Obama on Sunday pledged to put his "full weight" behind a legislative package next year aimed at containing gun violence.

A newspaper's publication of the names and addresses of handgun permit holders in two New York counties has sparked online discussions -- and a healthy dose of outrage.

The nation's largest gun-rights lobby called Friday for armed police officers to be posted in every American school to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings."

President Barack Obama would actively support an impending proposal next year to reinstate a ban on assault weapons as part of the wide-ranging effort the president promised to initiate in response to mass shooting incidents this year.

Gun control advocates marched to the National Rifle Association's Capitol Hill office on Monday, in an effort to pressure the powerful organization to stop standing in the way of reform.

A handful of pro-gun Democrats showed signs of willingness to consider strengthening regulations on firearms, but that might not mean anything without the cooperation of Republicans, whose senior leaders and rank-and-file members have been mute about their interest in cooperating in such a legislative effort.

The shooting deaths of 16 children and their teacher in the Scottish town of Dunblane in 1996 stunned the country. What did Britain do to try to prevent such a tragedy happening again?