I’ve been doing a lot of digging around on and off the Web lately. Some very interesting things to consider:

This may sound too much like a conspiracy theory but it’s an interesting coincidence all the same. During the late 1960s, moonshining – the traditional realm of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms – suddenly became unprofitable on a large scale due to rising sugar prices and ever-loosening liquor laws. Large-scale moonshining activity ground to a halt and from that point on was limited largely to hobbyists and kids making shine for fun. Like all federal bureaucracies, the BATF needed a reason to justify its continued existance. Enter the Gun Control Act of 1968, the most draconian set of gun control laws ever passed in the history of this Republic, and still on the books today intact (indeed, made even more draconian by the expansion of its scope during the early 1970s to include explosives, and by Brady and Lautenberg.) Then, in 1972, the Supreme Court rendered a decision (United States vs. Biswell) granting the BATF broad search and seizure powers against small gun dealers.

Coincidence?

Has anyone else researched the reasoning behind the G.C.A. of 1968? The other reasons I have heard were that it was specifically aimed at disarming radical groups on the left, like the Black Panthers; that it was in response to the assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK, etc. (hence, the specific combination of categories – some of which are absurd but might be more common in a radical group like the Panthers – used to determine just who is a “prohibited possessor”, and hence, the heavy restrictions on taking guns across state lines or sending them through the mail. Lee Harvey Oswald bought his rifle through mail-order, so the gun grabbers of the day decided, “a-ha! Let’s ban mail-order guns!”) Now, love the Panthers or hate them, the fact still remains that they were in the right when they insisted on their right to openly carry firearms in Oakland and into the California State Legislature in Sacramento (both legal in CA prior to 1967 when Reagan signed the Mulford Act banning public carrying of firearms).

The Gun Control Act of 1968 passed with bipartisan support, with almost equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans supporting it. It is also worth noting that the opposition to the G.C.A. was also equally bipartisan. Whether one opposed or supported it in almost all cases depended on whether the Congressman or Senator was from a rural or urban district. The rural representatives from both parties opposed it, the urban ones supported it. What a far cry from today, when even rural Democrats like Daschle (D-SD) and Gore (D-TN) and of course Bill Clinton of Arkansas have fallen in line with the urban gun grabbers. This isn’t universally true but it seems that the clique currently controlling the Dems has made gun control one of their core issues, and you cannot get ahead in that party unless you go along with the entire program. The rural/urban rule still seems to hold true in the Republicans however.

More interesting observations to come later. Education – of ourselves, the general public, and any anti-gunners who might be swayed to our side – is the first step in turning back the tide and repealing gun laws back to their pre-1968 levels!