Word: guns
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...pamphlet published in 1964--entitled "The Gun Law Problem"--sets out the organization's basic attitude toward gun laws: "The National Rifle Association does not advocate, propose, or suggest any restrictive gun legislation at any level of government...
...organization strays a bit from this principle by throwing very small bones to anti-gun sentiment when the public demands stricter gun laws. After the tumultuously violent '30's, the NRA supported the 1935 National Firearms Act, which levied a $200 tax on the possession of machine guns and other gangster weapons. It also gave less enthusiastic backing to the 1938 Federal Firearms Act, which prohibits the sale of firearms to criminals or fugitives from justice. The law also requires gun dealers to purchase a Federal license, and requires them to keep records of all gun sales, including the name...
These are the only major Federal gun laws on the books. The NRA often points to them as examples of "responsible" gun legislation. If ineffectiveness is an index of responsibility, the NRA is right. The National Firearms Act did cut down the number of machine guns in circulation, but latter-day Al Capones have had little trouble finding substitutes...
...January 29, 1968, the Supreme Court cut the ground from under the National Firearms Act. The Court ruled that the Fifth Amendment protected anyone who did not register a machine gun. (Only those who had not paid the $200 tax--and thus were illegally possessing the weapon--had to register...
...Federal Firearms Act is even more useless. It really keeps no one--even a criminal--from buying a gun, since there is no means for assuring that the name given by the buyer is correct. The license fee for dealers is a token $1 per year. Until a recent crackdown by the government, many gun fanciers used this portion of the act to declare themselves "dealers" and receive discounts from wholesale gun houses...