The 50s was a time when the idea of the government restricting something seemed A-OK and the idea of the government allowing many things (sex, drugs, rock and roll, protests, desegregation, homosexuality, you name it) was utterly terrifying for most people. Hell, McCarthy went around imprisoning people who were seen as a threat to the government and most people didn't mind at all. Today, decades and decades of people using things like gun control (or fear mongering against gun control) as springboards for political careers has completely changed attitudes. If a person proposed controlling guns somehow, it would have just sounded to most like an idea nobody had tried yet and there'd be nobody around to stand up and sound the alarm about attacks on our freedoms. If even a gun writer in the 50s said nobody needs a handgun, few would probably bat an eye. Today he'd be lynched in every way but literally.
Handgun fetishism wasn't as big in America in the fifties either. There were maybe two major handgun manufacturers--Colt and S&W, and their best sellers were still plain old .38 revolvers for police officers. Ruger was still just an upstart company making single-actions to cash in on people's love of TV Westerns. Even the Browning Hi-Power had only just begun to be imported. Handgun shooting was a niche market at best even for people who bought guns. Today, you couldn't even name all the handgun makers in America alone, or even just the ones making the same 1911. In hindsight, it's glaringly obvious that attitudes have changed today.
People like to think of the 50s as the good old days of gun ownership before all the gun control ruined it, but the truth is we are living in the best possible age to be a gun enthusiast if your desire really is to own the most deadly possible weapon, and to be sure you'll get to keep it, and to be able to carry it in public for that matter (unheard of in the 50s unless you had a badge, as I understand it.)