Americans participated in a great debate throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The debate continues into the 1980s and 1990s. It is the argument over whether the use of the 150 million handguns, shotguns, and rifles in the United States should be restricted or banned altogether. And if so, how? Opinions on what should be done conflict sharply. Many Americans are confused by all that has been said. On the one hand, we hear that something must be done immediately to stop the havoc wrought by the gun. Statistics tell us that it is responsible for more than 30,000 murders, suicides, and accidental deaths each year. It is used in countless crimes and is said to either breed or reflect the violence that has become such a significant and frightening aspect of our national life. More than 20,000 Americans are murdered each year. Guns of all types--dries, shotguns, and handguns--are responsible for approximately 66 percent of these deaths. By itself, the handgun is responsible for more than 10,000 deaths. With an increasing number of lives being taken each year, there is a call to control the gun, to curtail its use and the ease with which it may be purchased in many parts of the country, or to be rid of it altogether. However, there are also many Americans who, despite the appalling death rate, feel that we have the right to own firearms. Opponents of strict gun controls argue that the right to own firearms is guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution. The claim is made that, without firearms, we would be more vulnerable than ever to criminal violence. Moreover, they claim, we would be unable to defend ourselves if subversive elements, a would-be dictator, or some foreign intruder attempted to take hold of the country. The privately owned gun helped us to win our freedom in the first place, they say it can help us preserve that freedom today. Further, opponents of gun control tell us that gun-control laws don't work because the people who cause most of the trouble--the criminals--simply don't bother to obey them. But the proponents of control reply by producing statistics to show that control laws have kept the crime rates down in other nations. Strictly enforced controls, they believe, can do the same thing here. The American public are divided in opinion about ______.