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The lies we have been told over the years...

1962 We ONLY want to register handguns. Rifles will not be affected!
1964, We ONLY want to register ALL firearms, not ban them.

1968 We ONLY want to register all guns, and ban the import of foreign Saturday Night Specials, and 5-shot bolt action army surplus rifles! (they got the ban).

1970, We ONLY want to ban small American handguns. Rifles will not be affected!
1976 We ONLY want to ban ALL handguns! Rifles will not be affected!

1981, Actress Lee Grant on GMA screams...”THE NRA IS A RIFLE ORGANIZATION! THEY SHOULD GIVE UP THEIR HANDGUNS AND THEY CAN KEEP THEIR RIFLES!”

1984, they made a grab for the rifles, and missed, but played their hand.

1988,Josh Sugarmann, of the National Council to Ban Handguns tells how to ban rifles.

“Assault weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over
fully-automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons
—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine
gun— can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on
these weapons.”
– Josh Sugarmann

From 1976.

Nelson T. ‘Pete’ Shields
Founder of Handgun Control, Inc.

“I’m convinced that we have to have federal legislation to build on. We’re going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily — given the political realities — going to be very modest.

Of course, it’s true that politicians will then go home and say, ‘This is a great law. The problem is solved.’ And it’s also true that such statements will tend to defuse the gun-control issue for a time.

So then we’ll have to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen that law, and maybe again and again. Right now, though, we’d be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal — total control of handguns in the United States — is going to take time.

My estimate is from seven to ten years. The problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns sold in this country. The second problem is to get them all registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition — except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors — TOTALLY ILLEGAL.”

-Pete Shields, Chairman and founder, Handgun Control Inc., “A Reporter At Large: Handguns,” The New Yorker, July 26, 1976, 57-58

“Yes, I’m for an outright ban [on handguns].”

-Pete Shields, Chairman emeritus, Handgun Control, Inc., 60 Minutes interview

HCI, around 1984, suddenly made a grab for the semi-auto rifles and shotguns, and missed But they showed their hand. As a result all gun owners know we are always up against a stacked deck.

Gun owners now know that any time we negotiate with those who want to ban guns, we are up against a stacked deck.

Yep. They have come a long way from “ONLY” wanting to register handguns.