“That would be the Gun Control Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-618). Signed by President Johnson on 22 October 1968.”
It was also a dead bill until once certain Charlton Heston and the NRA pushed for it. That’s right, we can thank the NRA and Charlton Heston for pushing through the 1968 GCA.
This is an interesting posit. I know Wikepedia is a sketchy reference at best, but it states, about Charlston:
In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak openly against racism and was an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. Initially a moderate Democrat, he later supported conservative Republican policies and was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.
Without further explanation on your part, what you stated seems dubious.
After further review of the Wikepedia site, what you stated appears to be true. Apologies.
I lived at that time, the bill was NOT DEAD! It was worse. The NRA managed to prevent real registration with an alternative that was modified so only very small European handguns and army surplus rifles were banned.
If the NRA had not done this we would have a draconian gun registration system in which most firearms would be banned by now.
If you did not live at that time you will never know the hell gun owners had been going through after the death of JFK and Bobby.
The MSM had primed the US mind for gun control and when Bobby got shot they went berzerk with false claims against comic books, TV shows, Movies, the Vietnam war, conservatism, toy guns.
The reason we have a movie rating now is because of “self policing” by the movie industry which basically did nothing but throw off constraints and give us more blood and explicit sex than was ever shown up through 1968.