There are laws, and then there is enforcement
The
Titanic sank!
There are gun control laws, and then there is gun control law
enforcement. John Ross gives and excellent explanation in once scene in his novel
Unintended Consequences, in the part where young Henry Bowman learns that while his state passed laws against carrying weapons some time ago, they only enforced those laws against the "coloreds" for many years, and it wasn't until they began enforcing the laws against everybody equally that many people came to understand what a bad thing they actually were.
And so it has often been with the history of gun control. At first the laws (which technically applied to everyone) were often only enforced against the poor and minorities. Well to do (usually white) folks were usually left alone, or simply warned, where "lower classes" of society got rousted and jail for ding the same thing, carrying a gun where the "law" said they shouldn't. Nearly all the early gun control laws were put in place to be used as a tool for controlling minoritities. Blacks (former slaves), immigrants from Europe (people without a history of personal arms ownership) and all the others who did not make up the ruling class of society around the turn of the century. Interestingly it took them nearly a half a century or more to realize that they could control everyone with these kinds of laws. Or at least try.
What you grow up with is normal. It is right. It is correct, and the way the world ought to be. Even communist children in Russia beleived that.
What is added on during your life is Tyranny! And it is wrong. It is evil. It should not be tolerated! But if it stands, your children won't think it is tyranny. They'll think it is the way it ought to be.
Just look right here on this board. We've got people who were active gunowners and shooters before '68 (I think we've even got one from before '34!), and many more who began in the 80s and 90s, and some just starting out right now. And look at the differences in their attitudes about where we are when it comes to our "rights".
When it comes to guns, I don't think we are better off than we were in the past, and I fear we are better off than we will be in the future. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. I wish it were otherwise.