Scoffed following retrospective gun control (8)
I believe the answer is:
regulate
'control' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'scoffed following retrospective gun' is the wordplay.
'scoffed' becomes 'ate' ('to scoff' is to eat).
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'retrospective' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'gun' becomes 'luger' (type of pistol).
'luger' backwards is 'regul'.
'ate' after 'regul' is 'REGULATE'.
(Other definitions for regulate that I've seen before include "Control, manage" , "ADjust, fix" , "Police" , "Adjust - control" , "Control or direct by means of rules and procedures" .)