Gun control is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, transfer, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with only a few legislations being categorized as permissive. Jurisdictions that regulate access to firearms restrict access to only certain categories of firearms and to restrict the categories of persons who will be granted a license to have access to a firearm. In some countries such as the United States, gun control may be legislated at either a federal level or a local state level. Gun control refers to domestic regulation of firearm manufacture, possession and transport with regard to the class of weapons referred to as small arms. Usage of the term gun control is sometimes politicized; some of those in favor of legislation instead prefer to use terms such as "gun-violence prevention", "gun safety", "firearms regulation", "illegal guns", or "criminal access to guns". In 2007, it was estimated that there were, about 875 million small arms in the hands of civilians, law enforcement agencies, armed forces.

Of these firearms 650 million, or 75%, are held by civilians. U. S. civilians account for 270 million of this total. A further 200 million are controlled by state military forces. Law enforcement agencies have some 26 million small arms. Non-state armed groups have about 1.4 million firearms. Gang members hold between 2 and 10 million small arms. Together, the small arms arsenals of non-state armed groups and gangs account for, at most, 1.4% of the global total. Barring a few exceptions, most countries in the world allow civilians to purchase firearms subject to certain restrictions. A 2011 survey of 28 countries over five continents found that a major distinction between different national regimes of firearm regulation is whether civilian gun ownership is seen as a right or a privilege; the study concluded that both the United States and Yemen were distinct from the other countries surveyed in viewing firearm ownership as a basic right of civilians and in having more permissive regimes of civilian gun ownership.

In the remaining countries included in the sample, civilian firearm ownership is considered a privilege and the legislation governing possession of firearms is correspondingly more restrictive. At the international and regional level, diplomatic attention has tended to focus on the cross-border illegal trade in small arms as an area of particular concern rather than the regulation of civilian-held firearms. During the mid-1990s, the United Nations Economic and Social Council adopted a series of resolutions relating to the civilian ownership of small arms; these called for an exchange of data on national systems of firearm regulation and for the initiation of an international study of the issue. In July 1997, ECOSOC issued a resolution that underlined the responsibility of UN member states to competently regulate civilian ownership of small arms and which urged them to ensure that their regulatory frameworks encompassed the following aspects: firearm safety and storage. In 1997, the UN published a study based on member state survey data titled the United Nations International Study on Firearm Regulation, updated in 1999.

This study was meant to initiate the establishment of a database on civilian firearm regulations which would be run by the Centre for International Crime Prevention, located in Vienna. Who were to report on national systems of civilian firearm regulation every two years; these plans never reached fruition and further UN-led efforts to establish international norms for the regulation of civilian-held firearms were stymied. Responding to pressure from the U. S. government, any mention of the regulation of civilian ownership of small arms was removed from the draft proposals for the 2001 UN Programme of Action on Small Arms. Although the issue is no longer part of the UN policy debate, since 1991 there have been eight regional agreements involving 110 countries concerning aspects of civilian firearm possession; the Bamako Declaration, was adopted in Bamako, Mali, on 1 December 2000 by the representatives of the member states of the Organisation of African Unity. The provisions of this declaration recommend that the signatories would establish the illegal possession of small arms and light weapons as a criminal offence under national law in their respective countries.

High rates of gun mortality and injury are cited as a primary impetus for gun control policies. A 2004 National Research Council critical review found that while some strong conclusions are warranted from current research, the state of our knowledge is poor; the result of the scarcity of relevant data is that gun control is one of the most fraught topics in American politics and scholars remain deadlocked on a variety of issues. Notably, since 1996, when the Dickey Amendment was first inserted into the federal spending bill, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been prohibited from using its federal funding "to advocate or promote gun control," thwarting gun violence research at the agency at the time; the funding provision's author has said that this was an over-interpretation, but the amendment still had a chilling effect halting federally funded firearm-related research. Since the amendment, the CDC has continued to

Peter Franklin Paul is a former lawyer and entrepreneur, convicted for conspiracy and drug dealing, for securities fraud in connection with his business dealings with Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee. He has brought suit against Hillary Clinton, accusing her of lying about donations he solicited on behalf of her 2000 senatorial campaign. In the 1970s, Peter Paul was a lawyer in Miami, representing foreign governments and political leaders in South America and the Caribbean, he served as President of the Miami World Trade Center and was the original owner and operator of the largest Foreign Trade Zone in the U. S. Miami Free Zone Inc; as a result of what Paul described as anti-Communist and anti-Castro political activities, he directed a fraud on the Cuban government of $8.75 million by selling agents of Cuban president Fidel Castro nonexistent coffee. The plan also involved sinking the ship, to deliver the nonexistent coffee to hide the fraud from Castro and, according to Time magazine, to defraud its insurer, but the conspirators neglected to bribe a port official in Santo Domingo, the people who were supposed to scuttle the boat were not allowed on board.

Paul pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges. When his home was raided by the police in connection with this crime, they found cocaine in his garage, Paul pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for the cocaine charge, a concurrent three years for fraud. His license to practice law was suspended as a result of the convictions, he claims to have been sued by the Cuban government as well. In 1983, Paul was caught traveling to Canada using the identity of a dead man; this was a violation of his parole terms from the 1979 felonies, he went back to prison. After being released from federal prison in California, Paul moved to Los Angeles. In 1985, he was appointed President of the California Bicentennial Foundation for the Constitution and Bill of Rights, a foundation designated by the California state legislature and governor to direct California's role in the Bicentennial celebration of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Paul's efforts on behalf of the Foundation were derided in the Los Angeles Times, in part because the commission was selling a book that described blacks using the slur "pickaninnies", declared slaveowners "the worst victims of slavery", in part because Paul referred to the founding fathers of the United States as "39 sweaty old men arguing in Philadelphia", remarked that most Californians weren't able to understand the 18th-century language in the constitution anyway.

Before the Los Angeles Times article, Chief Justice Warren Burger had commended Paul for his efforts in a letter that read in part, "We commend you for the many contributions you have made during the national commemoration of the Constitution's 200th anniversary". Paul became a business manager for, or otherwise involved with several celebrities, including becoming manager for a time of romance-novel icon Fabio. Paul emerged in 2000 as the largest contributor to Senatorial candidate Hillary Clinton. Paul and his attorneys have at various times offered two explanations for this. First, that he was trying to attract her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, to serve on the board of Stan Lee Media after leaving office. Second, that he hoped to negotiate a pardon for his previous criminal convictions. Paul produced and underwrote what he described as the largest fund raising event held for a federal candidate, in Los Angeles, days before the 2000 Democratic Convention began; the Hollywood Farewell Gala Salute to President William Jefferson Clinton featured prominent entertainers singing for the President, while raising over $1 million for Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign.

The event cost $1.9 million to organize according to Paul and $500,000 according to the Federal Election Commission filing, much of it borrowed fraudulently by Paul from Merrill Lynch. Indictments would state that Merrill Lynch lost about $5 million it had lent to Paul. Two days after the gala, the Washington Post publicized Paul's criminal record, Hillary Clinton denied knowing Paul and "vowed not to take any contributions from him". Through her spokesman, Howard Wolfson, Hillary stated on August 16, 2000, that she would return $2,000 she reported receiving from Paul in June 2000. Paul alleged that Clinton was deceitful in this, retained public interest law firm, frequent Clinton opponent, Judicial Watch to represent him in a series of civil and criminal lawsuits against the Clintons, the Clinton campaign, the Federal Election Commission; these charges were delayed, as courts held that Paul could not bring charges against the Clintons as he fought extradition from Brazil, but proceeded once he was returned to the States.

In March 2005, Paul had a falling out with his advocates at Judicial Watch. He accused them of using his name to raise more than $15 million from people who disliked the Clintons, while doing little to advance his case, he announced his plan to replace them with a "dream team" of Republican lawyers, in February 2007, he filed suit against them, saying that they had taken advantage of him and that he was "not a big fan of their behavior". Regardless, Paul's claims have not found traction. An audit by the Federal Elections Commission found that neither Senator Clinton nor her Senate campaign had accepted any illegal funds in connection with the Hollywood fundraiser, though the

Grafling is a municipality in the district of Deggendorf in Bavaria in Germany. Grafling lies in the Danube Forest Planning Region, its lowest point is in Großtiefenbach at 326 m above sea level. The highest points of the municipality are the Steinberg, the Geißriegel, the Dreitannenriegel and the Einödriegel which rise above the valley of the Graflinger Tal to the east. To the north the valley ends at the Hochberg, to the west it is guarded by the Butzen and the Vogelsang in the municipality of Bernried. To the south the valley opens up towards Deggendorf, the Danube Plain, the Gäuboden