A Polite Society, part 1

The National Academy of Sciences (.PDF) has released a 328-page report on gun violence in America. The high-level view is that gun control laws are not the only constraint on gun violence. The prevailing spin is that no direct one-to-one correlation was found between a particular gun law and a decrease in violent crime.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics site is another useful source of information. (look for the really tiny 'next' link)