JFK assassination sowed seeds of failure for gun-control efforts

[sarisataka]

JFK assassination sowed seeds of failure for gun-control efforts


CHICAGO _ When a couple armed with assault rifles slaughtered 14 people at a holiday gathering in San Bernardino, California, this month, U.S. gun control advocates saw an opportunity. President Barack Obama lamented that "in America it's way too easy for dangerous people to get their hands on a gun" and said making it harder was the only right response.

Within a day, the Republican-controlled Senate rejected an expansion of background checks for gun buyers and defeated a law barring individuals on the terror watch list from purchasing firearms. Before the Christmas break, an effort to lift a 17- year-old ban on nearly all government research into gun violence was also defeated.

The origins of this familiar impasse lie in a congressional battle nearly five decades ago following some of the most traumatic political assassinations in the country's history: a president, his brother and two civil rights leaders. The White House pushed -- and failed -- to require that guns be licensed and gun owners registered right after the killings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy in 1968.

"The template was established in the 1960s," said Joseph Califano, chief domestic affairs adviser to President Lyndon Johnson. "With all the clout we had, we couldn't do it."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-guns-4832d1f2-a97b-11e5-b596-113f59ee069a-20151226-story.html

[juxtaposed]

1. this is totally not true.. Massachusetts pushed and set in place hard gun control measures

other states could have but, had dip shits in office at the time..

[SecularMotion]

2. Yes, it's bullshit

The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

[Straw Man]

3. No, it's not.

The push was for universal registration of guns and gun owners. That failed. Read the article.

The GCA only restricted mail order sales, required licensing of dealers, and created the categories of "prohibited persons." That was far less than was originally envisioned.

[SecularMotion]

4. The article is blatant RW gun lobby propaganda.

The National Firearms Act of 1934 was passed in response to gangland violence during prohibition.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed in response to political assassinations of the 60s.

The Brady Bill was passed in response to the Reagan assassination attempt and gun violence of the crack epidemic..

The article should be titled "When gun violence reaches the tipping point, stronger regulations are enacted"

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

5. I thought it was all just NRA talking points

Who knew!

[Kang Colby]

6. One point....

The Brady Act was passed in 1993, and earlier versions had been attempted in the 1980s. Reagan was a huge advocate for the Brady Bill after leaving office. This was six years prior to Columbine.

[SecularMotion]

7. Thanks for catching that error

[Kang Colby]

16. No problem. n/t

[davepc]

15. Ronald Regan is a gun controlers hero.

Make sure you add the Mulford Act to his resume as well.

[gejohnston]

8. less of a response to but rather

a gave the ability to pass. The economic elites and the Klan have been pushing for gun control for decades before the NFA. The Klan managed to get carry restrictions in most states, purchase permit requirements in MI, NC, and MO, before and during prohibition. They also got registration through the Mississippi state house but died in the state senate in 1954.
Michigan, being a northern state, passed their UBC in response to Doctor Ossian Sweet being acquitted after defending his home from a Klan home invasion.

[sarisataka]

9. Are all facts you do not like

simply propaganda? The 1968 GCA was watered down from what LBJ wanted-

After three decades of quiescence in the arena of gun control politics, the turmoil of the 1960s unleashed a wave of demand for new gun control legislation. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963, prompted the country to focus on the regulation of firearms. Then the urban riots beginning in 1964 and the 1968 assassinations of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy fueled an inferno of outrage that demanded congressional action. In the wake of these acts of violence the U.S. Congress enacted the Gun Control Act (P.L. 90-618, 82 Stat. 1213) which President Lyndon B. Johnson signed in 1968. Although the Gun Control Act did not contain the owner licensing and gun registration provisions that President Johnson desired, the act, along with the Safe Streets and Crime Control Act passed by Congress months earlier, contained the most significant restrictions on firearms since Congress enacted the National Firearms Act (NFA) in 1934.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3407400148.html

Or is encyclopedia.com also RW propaganda?

[DonP]

10. "Or is encyclopedia.com also RW propaganda?"

Well, if it doesn't say what they want it to say it must be either:

1. NRA Talking Points.

or

2. Right Wing Propaganda.

Of course the source matters too, so if it says something they agree with it's OK to use even if it's from FR, but if it disagrees with any of their "articles of faith" it's a lousy Reich wing source and they'll run to ATA to demand the Gungeon be shut down and everyone here imprisoned.

[sarisataka]

13. It was the source of the article

That caught my attention. Had it been a typical pro-gun site I would have not even read it.

But seeing it was in the notoriously pro-NRA, RW supporting Chicago Tribune, and not even an opinion piece, it piqued my interest.

[Straw Man]

11. A simple question.

The push for full registration of guns and gun owners in the late 1960s failed. True or false?

[friendly_iconoclast]

12. ...that with either be ignored or talked around

Last edited Sun Dec 27, 2015, 08:02 PM - Edit history (1)

[Eleanors38]

14. Strange, I thought the '68 Act was passed to "keep guns out of the hands of blacks..."

Or so says Robert Sherrill, the well-known gun-control/ban journalist. I mean, he was there. He heard the debate. He saw the motivations.

He's one of yours.



P.S.: There were many scores of so-called ghetto insurrections during the latter 60s. You remember those.