WASHINGTON — Since last week’s deadly shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., a pitched national conversation about gun policy has dominated town hall meetings, a White House summit meeting, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference and the never-ending stream of social media feeds.

Below is a brief review of several laws governing guns in the United States and how effective those policies have been in curbing violence.

High-profile shootings prompted several major federal gun laws.

Some of the toughest laws that regulate the production, distribution and use of firearms in the United States were passed after major acts of violence.

■ The National Firearms Act of 1934 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after high-profile gangland crimes, including the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929 that killed seven in Chicago. The law imposed a $200 tax on transfers of machine guns, short-barrel rifles and shotguns, and it required gun owners to register those weapons.