Gun History, And Attitudes Towards Guns?

[Ingomike]

In a recent thread I posted the following: I suspect the NFA was done at a time that society desperately wanted to move beyond the Wild West/rural caricature to a suave and sophisticated urban persona. A time when only ganstas had guns. This was not only the thinking of the people but of the courts.

I believe our passions about the second amendment are not paralleled in US history since the founders era…

So my question in this thread is, is it true that the passion we have for guns and the right to keep and bare arms the strongest since the founders?

 

[Ziggidy]

Interesting question. My initial thinking is we had more support in the past. The more we move towards socialism and such, there is more awareness but not necessarily more support. Today we have a greater awareness on both sides but not necessarily more support.

I think.....

 

[Ingomike]

Interesting question. My initial thinking is we had more support in the past. The more we move towards socialism and such, there is more awareness but not necessarily more support. Today we have a greater awareness on both sides but not necessarily more support.

I think.....

Part of my questioning is I do not see any mention of organized opposition to the NFA. It always feels like that was the outcome of a smoke filled backroom deal, not a public fight a gun ban would face today…

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Some days it seems like we’re moving in the right direction and some days it doesn’t. Until I can buy any arm that any government employee can possess and no government employee may use a arm unavailable to me, as it was at our founding, I’m not ready to say we’re as strong as we’ve been since our founding. Bruen seems to be the gift that keeps on giving. Time will tell if it metastasizes.

 

[Ziggidy]

Part of my questioning is I do not see any mention of organized opposition to the NFA. It always feels like that was the outcome of a smoke filled backroom deal, not a public fight a gun ban would face today…

I need to educate myself on the NFA.

It's been a huge learning curve for me since joining INGO.

 

[KLB]

I'd say it is the best it has been in the last 100 years or so. Prohibition did a lot to start turning the tide when it unleashed the gang warfare of the time.

 

[Ingomike]

Some days it seems like we’re moving in the right direction and some days it doesn’t. Until I can buy any arm that any government employee can possess and no government employee may use a arm unavailable to me, as it was at our founding, I’m not ready to say we’re as strong as we’ve been since our founding. Bruen seems to be the gift that keeps on giving. Time will tell if it metastasizes.

I was hoping not get into direction, but rather focus on the support. Was there significant organized opposition to NFA, GCA, like there would be today? Or was it behind the scenes horse trading?

 

[Ark]

In all of US history? No, gun ownership was near universal and there were no gun laws of virtually any kind after the founding of the country.

 

[BigRed]

I need to educate myself on the NFA.

It's been a huge learning curve for me since joining INGO.

It's a good example of what happens when you give a communist piece of **** an inch.

 

[KLB]

I was hoping not get into direction, but rather focus on the support. Was there significant organized opposition to NFA, GCA, like there would be today? Or was it behind the scenes horse trading?

On that basis, of course it is stronger today. The simple fact is, even 30 years ago, you did not have the instant access to information you do today. It is much easier to fight what you know about than it is to fight what you don't hear about until after it is law.

 

[Ingomike]

I'd say it is the best it has been in the last 100 years or so. Prohibition did a lot to start turning the tide when it unleashed the gang warfare of the time.

In all of US history? No, gun ownership was near universal and there were no gun laws of virtually any kind after the founding of the country.

So they did not need a passion until the gun grabbers started in around the prohibition era as KLB noted.

 

[Ark]

So they did not need a passion until the gun grabbers started in around the prohibition era as KLB noted.

Exactly. It was just by consensus and daily practicality. That's why we went something like 200 years with no real 2A case law.

 

[jason867]

We gave king george the finger and created a new country when Britain tried to take our guns. I'd argue our passion for gun ownership was never greater than at that moment and for some time afterward.

 

[Ingomike]

We gave king george the finger and created a new country when Britain tried to take our guns. I'd argue our passion for gun ownership was never greater than at that moment and for some time afterward.

That was why I predicated that in the original question. Trying to gain understanding of where we are now vs. since that period…

I should have put that in the poll question as well but did not…

 

[DadSmith]

I believe gun ownership was stronger in the past. I wonder if the NFA was passed when the majority of congressman were home, or after midnight.

 

[KLB]

I believe gun ownership was stronger in the past. I wonder if the NFA was passed when the majority of congressman were home, or after midnight.

Looks like they hid behind a voice vote, and Roosevelt all was too happy to sign it. Public sentiment was probably behind it with the gang shootings at the time. I also bet the papers were all for it.

 

[indykid]

If the founders of this country weren't so passionate about firearm ownership, would they have written "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"?

No exception for length of barrel, overall length or any other restriction.

 

[snapping turtle]

I'd say it is the best it has been in the last 100 years or so. Prohibition did a lot to start turning the tide when it unleashed the gang warfare of the time.

So they solved a problem that they caused with the NFA tax.
Sounds a lot like what is still going on today.

 

[BigRed]

So they solved a problem that they caused with the NFA tax.
Sounds a lot like what is still going on today.

It is what state ALWAYS does.

 

[Leadeye]

The NFA started out as a bill that was going to cover ALL firearms the way it covers the things it regulates now. There was plenty of opposition to it and the resulting bill was a compromise. A hard driver of HR 9066 was the AG Homer Cummings, a New Dealer who saw just about everything as a national problem requiring a federal solution. At the end of it all, the bill that became the 1934 firearms act focused on things that scared people, or were considered criminal in themselves. Shortened shotguns and rifles, suppressors and machine guns. It wasn't written with a lot of technical thought and caught up a number of carbines, trapper guns, etc. It was also formatted as a tax, prevailing constitutional wisdom at the time was that the federal government couldn't ban guns, but it could tax them. The $200 tax was very high in 1934, but inflation being a favorite stealth tax, the government found itself in a dilemma in the late 70s where you could buy a MAC-10 and pay the tax for the cost of a Colt Python. This ushers in the "golden age" of NFA which lasts until the Hughes amendment fixes the total machine guns in the registry.

Richard Helmers book, The Gun that made the 20s Roar covers this in great detail.