1950's...."The golden days for gun-owners"...

[teumessian_fox]

No "golden age of guns" can exist without shall issue carry permits. And in my home state of Indiana, nobody could legally carry until very (relatively) recently unless they were law enforcement.

Today is the "golden age" of guns. We have more options available than ever before. And unless I choose to travel to some part of the country infested with vermin socialist lawmakers, I can carry just about anywhere I want.

If I had to choose between then and now, I'd choose now.

Plus, back then, the closest I could get to owning a gun was something made by Mattel.

 

[GRIZ22]

Before you get too nostalgic for the 1950s prices, $30 in 1957 adjusted for inflation would have the buying power of $234 today. Still, a surplus 1911 for $234 today would still be a good buy.


We can ALL agree it was the Golden Age for PRICES (the dollar went further back in the day regardless of the so called 'adjusted for inflation' baloney).


You have to include the basic economic principle of supply and demand. There were millions of surplus military rifles and pistols around in the 50s and early 60s and not as many people out there trying to buy them. If surplus 1911s were as abundant as Mosin Nagants they'd be about $100 too.

 

[Naybor]

This is about the BEST thread I've ever been on. Interesting and informative.

 

[Zoogster]

If surplus 1911s were as abundant as Mosin Nagants

They almost were in the US.

Clinton had hundreds of thousands in US military armories destroyed specifically so they would never go to civilians.

This was around the same time they had most of the M14s destroyed for the same reason.

This was the fate of most military 1911s.

They wanted to insure civilians never got the surplus.
They also ended the DCM and when it came back as the CMP required the charter prohibited ever providing handguns to civilians as surplus.


Had Clinton and Congress not been so anti-gun the market would be flooded with cheap USGI 1911s.
They would be the bottom end 1911s everyone could inexpensively purchase, and every manufacturer would have to produce something noticeably better just to sell it at a profit.

 

[JohnBT]

My father served in WWII in the Pacific. I was born in 1950.

Do you know why they had to advertise the sale of all of those surplus 1911s and rifles in the back of magazines month after month? Because they couldn't sell them.

Because the majority of the vets didn't want them; they'd had enough of them in service and they wanted a nice new, tight, unabused weapon.

He said it then and he said it again last Friday when I asked him about it.

They might be historic to us, but to a lot of the vets they were just old, used guns. And mixmasters at that. And rattletraps. And hand biters.

John

 

[leadcounsel]

I did not experience the 1950s, but I suspect that the combonation of gun laws and technology today are really about as great as they ever have been - sure there are things I would change, but let's look at what we DO have:

1. Unbelievable 'mass produced' quantity of inexpensive, working, reliable, variety of guns. Sure, they may not be the hand crafted beauty of yesteryear... but the reality that there is very little that I really want and or need that I cannot get. Full auto would be a nice luxury, but it's both impractical and would be hard to afford to feed. The variety I can get is incredible... C&R, modern rifles, handguns, shotguns, historic pieces, etc....
2. Due to this, most people can buy a quality handgun, rifle or shotgun for about a couple days' salary!
3. Reloaders have incredibly tools to use.
4. Concealed carry could be better, but it's accepted in nearly every state and all national parks.
5. I think the 2nd Amendment has turned a corner. Despite blisteringly public gun attacks at Columbine, VT, Tucson, and other locations, it has not negatively impacted the gun rights of individuals.
6. The rollback of gun laws, nationwide, including the AWB. Folks are turning the corner and seeing that gun laws DON'T work.
7. The anti-gun movement has lost a ton of credibility in the last 17 years, since the AWB was passed and many politicians got booted out of office.
8. Open carry and Constitutional carry gaining ground in many states.
9. Make my day and similiar 'hold your ground' self defense laws exist in most states.
10. Still able to do FTF transactions in most areas.
11. C&Rs sent right to your door.

So I think that this may be one of the best times -