Abortion vs. guns: which one should (and do) we regulate more strictly?

[Note: Another old post that's been sitting in my archive since mid-2016, when I originally wrote almost all of it. I recently decided to dig it back up, add a bit of content to the end to make it seem at least somewhat complete, and post it. Enjoy! -JPS]

The gun control-abortion laws comparison has been brought up many times, typically by Democrats like Trevor Noah. The argument is that Republicans oppose gun control very staunchly, but they seem to support "abortion control" (i.e. laws that make it harder for women to obtain abortions) with comparable fervency. This, Democrats say, is logically inconsistent, since if Republicans are really "pro-life", as they claim to be all the time, they should support measures designed both to reduce abortions and gun violence.

In this post I will try to answer two questions, and discuss others' answers to them:
1. Why don't Republicans support reducing gun violence through restrictive gun laws if they support reducing abortions through restrictive abortion laws?
2. What would it mean if, as one Missouri politician proposed last December, we regulated guns like abortions?

The typical Republican response to this first question tends to be that they aren't opposed to gun control but rather, are merely "favoring the Second Amendment." Similarly, they may say that restrictive abortion laws are aimed at "saving the unborn." This seems to cover the first question, so let's move on to the second.

So let's see whether guns are more strictly regulated in this country than abortions, or vice versa. Let's start with a popular meme, which you can see at this link. The meme's first observation is that people who want to have abortions have to undergo mandatory waiting periods in many Republican-controlled states, but this is not the case for people who want to buy guns. Now it's worth noting that abortion waiting periods vary from state to state: 27 states mandate them.

2. Arizona	Currently Enforced	24 hours1
2. Georgia	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. Idaho	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. Kansas	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. Kentucky	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. Louisiana	Currently Enforced	24 hours1
2. Michigan	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. Minnesota	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. Mississippi	Currently Enforced	24 hours1
2. Nebraska	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. North Dakota	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. Ohio	Currently Enforced	24 hours1
2. Pennsylvania	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. South Carolina	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. Texas	Currently Enforced	24 hours7
2. Virginia	Currently Enforced	24 hours7
2. West Virginia	Currently Enforced	24 hours
2. Wisconsin	Currently Enforced	24 hours1

The length of mandated waiting periods varies considerably among these states: 18 hours in Indiana, 24 hours in 16 other states (shown in the chart above), 48 hours in Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee, and 72 hours in Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah. Now what do gun waiting periods look like on a state level? Because it's worth noting that there is no federal law requiring a waiting period for guns any more than there is one for abortions. Only 9 states out of 50 (as well as the District of Columbia) require waiting periods for some or all gun purchases. So clearly, abortions are regulated more strictly than guns in this respect. Or are they? Because the longest abortion waiting period is 72 hours, but among the 9 states and DC that have them for guns, they are mostly longer than that:

States Imposing Waiting Periods for Purchases of All Firearms

State (Waiting Period)
California (10 days)15
District of Columbia (10 days)16
Hawaii (14 days)17
Illinois (24 hours) (long guns); 72 hours (handguns)18
Rhode Island (7 days)19

States Imposing Waiting Periods for Purchases of Handguns and Assault Weapons

State (Waiting Period)
Minnesota (7 days)20

States Imposing Waiting Periods for Handguns Only

State (Waiting Period)21
Florida (3 days)22
Iowa (3 days)23
Maryland (7 days)24
New Jersey (7 days)25

As you can see, all the waiting periods above are at least as long as the longest for abortions (72 hours), except the 24-hour waiting period in Illinois for long guns. Interestingly, only one state has mandated waiting periods for both guns and abortions: Minnesota, which has a waiting period for handguns and assault weapons (but not other guns) of 7 days, 7 times longer than its abortion waiting period. So in that state, guns are regulated more strictly than abortions, but overall it's clear that more states have abortion waiting periods than gun waiting periods. Though, to be fair, the 10-day waiting period in California has been struck down in the case of experienced gun purchasers who have already passed a background check.

Let's move on to the issue of parental permission. In all but 13 states, such permission is required for women under the age of 18 who want to have abortions. Under federal law, by contrast, you must be at least 18 to buy a long gun or a handgun, with one key exception: you can legally buy a long gun no matter how young you are if you do it from an unlicensed dealer. The number of states where parental permission is not required for people under the age of 18 who want to buy a gun appears to be 0: there are 10 states where you can buy a long gun without parental permission, but in all 10 of these states, you must be 18 or older to do so legally.

One area where there's no competition is in the sheer number of abortion clinics vs. licensed gun dealers: there were a total of 788 abortion clinics in the entire U.S. (as of 2014). The total number of licensed gun dealers in the US appears to be the sum of the values in columns 1 and 2 in the ATF's monthly table (here is the one for September 2017). This shows that just in New York, there were 1,769 total gun dealers that month--over twice the # of abortion clinics in the entire country!