The thing is, throughout most of the states, people may own guns without a license to do so, and may only own fully automatic weapons - hold down the trigger and more than one cartridge fired - with a license from the federal government. There are exceptions to this of course. Mass. and New York, and probably others as well, have laws against pistol or gun ownership without a state issued license to do so. Additionally the law barring ownership of "assault type" weapons recently expired with little but small complaints.

Unfortunately, as the bumper stickers state, "When guns are outlawed only outlaws will own guns." Thus criminals in Mass and NY have little difficulty obtaining guns to aid them in their crimes, so all these laws do is prevent honest people from buying guns for sport or protection.

Additionally, since the issue of gun ownership has become such an emotional one, a graduating student in a local town has been prohibited from using a picture of him, in a shooting jacket with a opened shotgun over his left shoulder, in his graduation yearbook. Granted, this is a knee-jerk reaction to tragedies such as occurred at Columbine High School, in Colorado, and other locations, but it hasn't seemed to curtain gun ownership. The student is appealing this decision through the courts, with the financial aid of shooting organizations.   

Dave