This policy, a big part of which was reducing the number of guns in circulation, helped to lower gun-murders of under-24-year-olds from 51 in 1990 to only 16 last year.

ECONOMIST: First safety, then civility

State reinforcement of federal penalties for providing false information when buying a gun, running background checks on buyers at gun shows, allowing local discretion to police when issuing concealed-carry permits, requiring purchase permits for handguns and allowing municipalities to set their own gun laws are all associated with lower gun-trafficking rates.

ECONOMIST: Guns and state borders

Responsible buyers would pay lower premiums for taking gun-safety classes, using gun locks and safes.

FORBES: Gun Insurance: An Economic Argument

Only 12 percent said they think the number of gun crimes is lower, while the rest said they think it remained the same or didn't know.

NPR: Reports Show Gun Homicides Down Since 1990s

"We know that's true, because in states that already require background checks on private sales, the rate of women murdered by an intimate partner armed with a gun is 38% lower than in states that don't have such background checks, " he said.

CNN: Threatening letters to Bloomberg test positive for ricin

Yet a Harvard study showed that rates of violence in high-gun-ownership countries are much lower than in low-ownership ones.

FORBES: Why Gun Regulation Is Uncivilized

Despite the fact that many other countries have similar requirements (and yes, much lower rates of murder and mayhem), gun groups in our country have raised alarmist concerns about the "logistical nightmare" of background checks for private sales.

CNN: Why the NRA fights background checks

Then why is New York's rate of gun-related assaults and homicides so much lower than Chicago's?

WSJ: Jenkins: Gun Control That Works

Gura said the appeals court rulings on the New York and Maryland laws, "if left unchecked, will accelerate the lower courts' resistance" to the Supreme Court's endorsement of gun rights.

WSJ: High court weighs taking up new case on gun rights