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Weapon control goes back to well before the advent of firearms. A couple of posters mentioned the early prohibitions against crossbows in the Middle ages and Elizabethan English rules about swords and other edged weapons. If I remember correctly Karate and Ju-Jitsu and several other Oriental martial arts came about because of legal restrictions on weapons. I think we can reasonably say that the anti-gun movement goes back as far as firearms, and that the "weapon-control" movement goes back as far as weapons. It is always about control, and people without weapons, or with less effective weapons, are easier to control. It is the people in power, or who want to be in power, who seek to control access to weapons by the "wrong people" - who are any people who threaten or could potentially threaten the people in power.
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