What the Gun Debate Looked Like in 1967

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Bartholomew Roberts

Moderator
This is an interesting piece by Reason examining some historical video from newscasts of the gun debate circa 1967 (right before the 1968 GCA passed in Congress). It is interesting to note how little many of the arguments have changed (even though so much more regulation has been added since then). However, it is interesting to note that gun control was much more supported by conservatives at that time.

https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/09/friday-av-club-what-the-gun-debate-looke
 
In 1965, Senator Thomas Dodd was (or claimed to be) inspired by the assassination of President Kennedy to push for gun control. In 1967, he began pressuring President Johnson on the issue. Johnson was sympathetic. He wanted universal registration of firearms on the federal level.

Congress showed no interest. Then we had unprecedented race riots, particularly in Detroit. First responders complained about being shot at.

Congress grudgingly conducted hearings. The Stanford Research Institute published a report on the riots that laid the blame for the violence on the easy availability of firearms. Sales had jumped anywhere between 120% and 300% in major cities. 30 million firearms had been added to the civilian market between 1958 and 1967, and this was being blamed for sharp upticks in violent crime.

Congress resisted the push. On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. There was more outcry, but no real momentum on the issue.

Then, on June 5th, Robert Kennedy was shot to death. Congress changed its mind that night, and the House passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Street Act of 1968 (the GCA) the next morning. The next few months would see some debate, but the provisions and structure were pretty much in place. It reached Lyndon Johnson's desk as the Gun Control Act of 1968, and he signed it into law.

The parallels are hard to miss.

  • we have a lame-duck President who really wants gun control to be part of his legacy
  • we have the shooting (though not fatal) of a politician in Tucson
  • we have a recent, massive surge in gun supply and ownership
  • we have racially motivated violence in the news
  • we have a perceived rise in public shootings
  • the scale and atrocity of these shootings is getting worse
  • we are lulled into thinking nothing can happen in the current political climate

The situation can turn on a single event, and I worry that event may be around the corner.
 
Tom,

If I could quote (don't understand why I can't-might be my Mac), I would give you five stars for putting in writing what many feel. Plus your final sentence is one I've mentioned many times, here and elsewhere. Kudos!

We can only speculate about an event that may trigger majority support, and that event could wear many faces. Further, I fear our political climate (both sides) is coming to the point of creating a contrived event to achieve certain goals, with that event spiraling out of control.

For these very reasons, those who enjoy the hobby need to be vigilant against changing interpretations of the 2nd amendment, and further, need to do our utmost to be good stewards of the 2nd amendment. The best we can do is practice safe handling, safe storage and condemnation of those gun owners that do not do so.
 
The push for gun control has certain constants. One, is that gun control laws are never really about public safety. The end goal for liberals everywhere, is disarming the Citizenry, to the point where they have to depend on .gov for their personal safety and protection, and to where they cannot ever rise up against the government.
Each incremental push has used political or mass shootings as a lever to ramrod new legislation down America's throat.
I can't think of any gun control legislation, that actually resulted in a safer America. I can think of a lot though, that has reduced our freedom, and made us more vulnerable.
 
Tony,

Not completely on the subject, but if you want to quote with your Mac, use COMMAND C to copy and COMMAND V to paste. CONTROL C and CONTROL V won't work except on a Windows machine ( I think ). I am on a MAC now and I use both machines and I have to change my thinking a bit.
 
Didn't gun control in the late 60's focus more on "Saturday Night Specials" and handguns? Military style rifles were not even a thought back then, if I have my facts right. And, the AR-15 was looked down on as "junk", or a novelty much the way the Taurus Curve is looked at today.
 
Skans said:
Didn't gun control in the late 60's focus more on "Saturday Night Specials" and handguns? Military style rifles were not even a thought back then...
Click to expand...
Actually, although it's slightly different than today's focus on semi-autos, a major part of the effort focused on prohibiting the import and subsequent mail-order sales of surplus military rifles.

The pubic excuse was the shooting of JFK using such a rifle, but the less-publicized major reason was to secure the support of conservative Dixiecrats and midwestern "law and order" conservatives who were frightened by the nascent Black Power movement and did not want groups such as the Black Panthers and Nation of Islam arming themselves anonymously by mail-order.

Also, like the import ban of so-called "Saturday Night Specials", these provisions of the law were backed by gun manufacturers upset about cheap imports undercutting their sales.

Although I don't recall the specifics, it took a reform effort in the 1990s(?) to allow the import of C&R military bolt-actions again.
 
Imports resumed in 1986. It's only taken 30 years since for the world's milsurps to disappear into the gaping maw of the Great American Gun Market.
 
Some Light Reading

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/111266/franklin-roosevelt-father-gun-control

FDR wanted all guns registered and prohibitively taxed. More guns for the elites but not for the peasants. The $200 tax at the worst of the depression. Yes that'll keep the peasants down. Even today the restrictions of the NFA-1934 are an economic burden.

Run the calendar up to the 1960s and see the main focus of all the federal gun control legislation is keeping 'Those People' from buying a gun.

:mad:
 
So is this push for gun control foreshadowing expected civil unrest? or is it just because?

I was shocked when I learned who gun control of days gone by was targeting.

I first read it in a cnn piece some time back.

I also remember talks of Saturday night specials, I found one RG 25auto, it's wrapped up in the back of a gun cabinet.

I grew up shooting rifles. The media did a good job of making handguns taboo. Most of us thought it illegal to carry one. I remember hollow points were the tool of sadistic criminals.

I think more people are aware of their right to own firearms these days and moreover, their right to carry.
They will meet some resistance in passing gun regulation. But they will still get it eventually.
They've learned lessons from the past. it's public opinion, make something uncool, the public will beg for restrictions.
 
Gun control has been a leftist goal for over a century, always to keep 'undesirables' from being armed, from Reconstruction Era blacks to Gilded Age tenements to non-WASP immigrants of the 1920s, to the general population of the 1930s through today. The goal has always been a disarmed population looking to a political elite or party for deliverance from the bugbears of the day.
 
kilimanjaro said:
Gun control has been a leftist goal for over a century, always to keep 'undesirables' from being armed, from Reconstruction Era blacks to Gilded Age tenements to non-WASP immigrants of the 1920s, to the general population of the 1930s through today.
Click to expand...
I'd argue that it was mostly pro-business conservatives pushing gun control in the late 19th through early 20th centuries, either out of a desire for a peaceful and therefore investment-friendly environment (particularly in frontier areas), or out of fear of radical leftists in the labor movement.

In other threads, I've discussed the fact that the 1876 TX Constitution qualifies the RKBA in Article 1, Section 23 with the phrase "...the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime." The folks who drafted this provision were FAR from what one would describe as leftists. :)
P5 Guy said:
FDR wanted all guns registered and prohibitively taxed. More guns for the elites but not for the peasants.
Click to expand...
In the context of the times, it's useful to remember that certain events in Russia in November* of 1917 were still recent history (like 9/11 today), that violent labor unrest was a regular occurrence throughout the USA, and that many labor leaders were implicitly or even openly friendly to the Communist cause. The Red Menace in 1930 wasn't a matter of Cold War-era military detente – there was a real and palpable fear that a major labor faction might attempt Communist revolution in the USA using live ammo, particularly since business and government leaders seemed like an obvious scapegoat for the recent economic collapse. :eek:

Although I think it's historically clear that FDR was personally somewhat of an elitist (not surprising given his background), I don't think the gun-control push of that era neatly lines up with today's left-right battle lines. FDR wasn't necessarily pushing it because it was part of his "leftist" agenda – some of the impetus was to oppose radical leftist factions who wanted reforms far beyond what he was advocating.

*October 1917 using the Julian calendar, hence the name "October Revolution".
 
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