This article is from over a month ago, but here it's languished in my reader. The article itself was crappy, since it's from Time magazine's left-biased crew, but there was one comment that I liked, reposted below for the two salient links.

Yih-Chau Chang
Reading through this Time Magazine article, it appears that Alex Altman has heavily quoted many noted gun control advocates but left the gun rights side of this debate largely underrepresented. Perhaps presenting a more balanced approach to the issue of gun rights/gun control would serve Time magazine's readership more effectively.

If additional gun control laws could somehow manage to curb the violent crime rate in society, then we would have seen dramatic reductions in violent crime in Washington DC, Chicago, or England, just to name off a few real-life examples. However, instead of the reductions in violent crime that were expected, the violent crime rates in all of these areas have increased dramatically after their handgun bans were put in place. It wasn't until the US Supreme Court struck down the unconstitutional handgun ban laws in DC and Chicago that the violent crime rates have started to come back down. The results were so dramatic in Washington DC that the violent crime rate dropped 36% in just two years after the US Supreme Court's Heller decision in 2008.

I am certain that everyone has the same interest in preserving public safety during these very difficult economic times. Let's take a proven method of reducing violent crime--common, law-abiding citizens being armed in a public setting, and allow this practice to help keep criminals at bay. For a look at the phenomenon of an armed general populace and its effect on violent crime from the academics, take a look at this video.

http://www.responsiblecitizensofcalifornia.org/video/john-lott-more-guns-less-crime-2

For independent confirmation of Dr. John R. Lott, Jr.'s findings, one has to look no further than the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.

The Mauser-Kates Study, "Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International Evidence", was academically peer reviewed and then published on Volume 30, Number 2 of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy (pp. 649-694).

http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7212&context=expresso

Hopefully, this information sheds some light on the facts regarding the emotionally charged topic of gun control during a time of national tragedy and helps to foster a calm and level-headed discussion moving forward.

The last link is pretty good.