Mood in '68

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Cast of One

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For those of you that remember, what was the mood of the time when the GCA of '68 was passed. What did gun advocates write against the act? Did the firearms publications of the day have anything to say about it?
 
I was only 18 at the time. Most of what I knew was via the news papers and TV. The coverage was bias with little visible opposition. And there was a ton of folks who really wanted mail orders of firearms and ammo stopped. Which was the biggest issue.

I knew little about opposition to the bill till Long after it's passage. The NRA did try to mustered opposition, but lack of mass communication net work and short window of the Bill in congress assured its passage at the time.

Be Safe
 
I remember my Dad telling me that I'd probably never be allowed to own guns when I was his age (at the time, 38).

No doom and gloom from me. I recall watching in horror as the 1994 AWB passed.

But we have something called the internet now and it's a whole new ball game.

Fight's still on, big time, but MSM isn't controlling the information flow.

As my K9 cop buddy says, run fast, bite hard!
 
The late 1960s were tense, during the riots I remember ammo bing hard to find. I think that the GCA of 68 was somewhat inspired by racism and general fear of a turbulent society.
 
I was in Vietnam when it all went down, didn't know anything about it.
When I was home on leave in 1969 I went to buy some .22lr ctgs.
to go squirrel hunting with a friend. That's when I found out about it, and was I ever teed off. :what:

Three months earlier I had been toting an M-16, LAAW rockets, claymore mines,
M-26 hand grenades, blocks of C-4, etc., etc., and these :cuss: idiots wouldn't sell me a box of .22 shells? Dude, I was pi$$ed!:fire::fire::fire:

Now that I think about it, I'm STILL P.O.ed:banghead:

Walter
 
M-26 hand grenades, blocks of C-4, etc., etc., and these idiots wouldn't sell me a box of .22 shells? Dude, I was pi$$ed!
Click to expand...

Can you say more about this? So there was something about meeting a certain standard just to be able to buy ammo? Was it the 21+ handgun rule in effect here, or something else?
 
I wasn't there for the GCA, but I was in the UK in 1988 when they banned all semiauto rifles except .22 rimfires.
At the time, speaking out against the ban was politically equivalent to condoning mass killings. There was no question on the general public's mind that anyone would want to own such a rifle unless they were planning on going on a rampage.
It was all over the news, and the media wanted them banned, so they demonized gun owners.
There was no dissent among the political parties, so it was impossible to vote for a pro gun party because there was no such thing.
The media controlled the situation 100%.

Of course, in those days the media had 100% control over the news that the public had access to.
Britain had already outlawed firearms for self defense long before, and we had no equivalent of the Second Amendment.
We also had no real equivalent to the NRA. Gun advocacy in the UK was splintered, and the attitude was a 'ban their guns as long as we get to keep ours' mentality.

Here today in America, things are different.
We have the Second Amendment, the NRA, lots of pro-gun politicians, a more gun-friendly public, and of course the internet.
 
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Back then J. Edgar Hoover was on our side. I was reading an insert from an old RCBS catalog last night that covered the same territory being discussed today. Crime statistics were bogus then as now.
 
Don't know. I was in the middle of my great Vietnam adventure. I never had any problem buying ammo when I got back, nor guns either. However, I was in the UP of MI....chris3
 
It really started in 1963 with the JFK assassination over the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald bought his S&W Victory and Mannlicher=Carcano by mail order using an alias. That started rumblings in Congress about doing something but there wasn't much support until the RFK & MLK assassinations created a crisis that could be taken advantage of.
 
Al Thompson has it nailed: The Internet did not exist.

Effective opposition to the act was throttled by the MSM (long before they had that name).

Also remember that the NRA (whatever you may think of it today) was not in the fight:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rifle_Association

"In 1977, two Second Amendment advocates—Harlon Carter and Neal Knox—defeated sportsmanship and conservation-focused officers to run the organization and its lobbying unit, respectively."

That also has changed the landscape.
 
I was three (3) in 1968. However, I do recall in the mid 70's my pop buying ammo at a local tackle shop and being put in a record book of some sort. Does that sound familiar to the old timers?
 
psyopspec said:
Can you say more about this? So there was something about meeting a certain standard just to be able to buy ammo? Was it the 21+ handgun rule in effect here, or something else?
Click to expand...
Same thing happened to my dad. We lived on the Gulf coast but my grandparents lived on 80 acres in southern Arkansas and we would spend three weeks there every summer. The first summer after GCA68 passed we drove to Arkansas with the breakdown Browning .22LR in the trunk so we could do some plinking in the woods but when we got there we discovered that they could no longer sell ammo to anyone from out of state. I believe one of my uncles bought us a brick of .22LR. I don't recall how long this provision lasted but it was obviously repealed soon.
 
The late 1960s were tense, during the riots I remember ammo bing hard to find. I think that the GCA of 68 was somewhat inspired by racism and general fear of a turbulent society.
Click to expand...

Racism had nothing to do with it. It was the result of the three major assassinations of the 60's which culminated in the two in 1968 (MLK and Bobby Kennedy). Guns and ammunition were still easy to obtain. I bought my first gun the day after King was killed and carried it that weekend. I could see the fires from Washington, DC from some of the hills in Arlington just outside of Falls Church, VA. The 60's were very troubled and turbulent times. Not a lot of good came out of the 60's.
 
I was 8, I remember my father ranting about how they already had xxxxx number of laws on the books and they did not need any more. Yea he yelled but voted D. He voted for Clinton and I about puked. Would not be surprised if he voted for the bummer. But then he was very racist so probably not. Unlike him I will not vote for an anti period. I will also remember who voted for and against our freedoms in the upcoming months/years.
 
In 1968 I was out of the military, had a concealed carry permit, owned a few handguns, a few rifles and a shotgun, owned a new motorcycle and a one year old car, had a good job and a year later would be in Woodstock.;)
 
I was in Alaska, on top of a mountain North of the Circle, 3 hours by airplane from the nearest newspaper. We sent letters, but that was about all we could do.

Pops
 
Yes, up until the GOPA-86 you had to sign for ammo, even one round of .22LR. No mail order ammo and (because the internet wasn't around yet for non-military) no internet sales.
 
Weird, I was 10, didn't know anything about it. When I was about 16, I walked into the Kittery Trading Post and bought a 12 ga shotgun by myself and shells whenever I needed them. Was there a difference with shotguns or something? I haven't read the 68 bill to know what is in it. Was it just the handgun issue? Sorry to be so naive on this one, will have to do a bit of catching up.
 
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