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Remember When You Could Buy These Firearms By Mail Order Before The Gun Control Act of 1968?
armedselfdefense.blogspot.com ^ | 03/21/11 | Gun Nut

Posted on 03/21/2011 6:12:40 AM PDT by Sasparilla

Prior to the Gun Control Act of 1968, you could buy almost any firearm that struck your fancy by mail order. Many of us received copies of gun and outdoors magazines back then. In addition to being chocked full of interesting articles on hunting, the history, use, and maintenance of your firearms, you could buy guns directly by mail from a host of gun dealers who advertised in these magazines. Pay the price and the shipping and your gun would be delivered directly to your home by an agent of the United States Government, the postman.

We have pictured here an assortment of mail order firearm advertisements from 1964 to 1967. Its amazing what $24.00 to $39.00 or so could bring to your door. Or, try this one. For a little more, how about an M1 Garand direct to your door for $79.99 plus $1.00 postage? These ads will be a shocker to anyone who doesn't know about the freedom of mail order back then. They will be nostalgic and painful for those of us who miss those salad days.

(Excerpt) Read more at armedselfdefense.blogspot.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: banglist; blog; firearms
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1 posted on 03/21/2011 6:12:44 AM PDT by Sasparilla
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To: Sasparilla

We were a free nation back then but we have progressed way beyond that now.


2 posted on 03/21/2011 6:19:31 AM PDT by fella (.He that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough." Pv.28:19')
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To: Sasparilla
My Uncle bought a Krag .3040 Carbine (Not NRA) for $25 by mail. The same carbine today will sell for over $2000.
3 posted on 03/21/2011 6:21:29 AM PDT by vetvetdoug
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To: fella

IF the word “progress” (-ion -ive) means things like, obligated servitude, restrictions, regulations, infringements, etc etc etc against your Constitutional rights...

Then obviously we have lost ALL rights, no matter what the issue is...

Apparently, some may say we have made some headway in correcting the problem this last election, and that we can start patting ourselves on the back for a job well done...

Well, you go right ahead and pat yerself on the back, and then get the heck out of my way...We are nowhere near done...

The mere fact that the issue of “reasonable gun-control” is back in the lexicon of current government talking points is proof that it was an issue that was only on the back burner simmering for the right moment to raise its ugly head again...

Bottom line, is I really hope folks are not that complacent thinking the job is done now that the polls went our way this time...

We now get to effect change at the local levels around the country this next Fall...I really think most of the people engaged this last November will sit back and home and watch this time...

I hope to be proven wrong...I really do...


4 posted on 03/21/2011 6:31:18 AM PDT by stevie_d_64 (I'm jus' sayin')
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To: Sasparilla

Man O Man do I remember those days and those adverts!


5 posted on 03/21/2011 6:32:30 AM PDT by Tainan (Cogito Ergo Conservitus.)
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To: Sasparilla

I also remember the local hardware stores and farm stores with their selection of guns.


6 posted on 03/21/2011 6:33:19 AM PDT by Tainan (Cogito Ergo Conservitus.)
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To: Sasparilla
There was a company called “Service Armaments” that put out a catalog back then full of ads like this. I had an agreement with my Dad that if I got all “B's” in my sophomore year of high school, I could order a pistol. I picked out an Astra since for $19 it came with a box of ammo (I still have it).

I filled out the order form, and as I was so young. my Dad thought it would be a good idea if he signed as well. He scribbled his name in the margin of the form with no other explanation. About three weeks later, the postman showed up with a box, containing the gun and the ammunition. What a weekend at the range that was.

I like to tell that story when I hear some nitwit going on about, “the easy availability of guns today.”

7 posted on 03/21/2011 6:35:15 AM PDT by I cannot think of a name
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To: Sasparilla

In Alaska you can find almost everywhere vacant lot flea markets or yard sales where you can buy rifles and such. Its legal as far as I know to sell a gun without paperwork.

Most if not all that I own was bought this way, no paperwork at all. Actually I do have one or two “cheapies” that have a pawn shop history, my I don’t care if they take them guns.


8 posted on 03/21/2011 6:35:19 AM PDT by Eye of Unk ("These people are either at your neck or at your knees" A quote by Winston Churchill)
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To: Sasparilla

I missed the ‘68 GCA by a couple years. My first gun I could legally buy was in 1970, I was home on leave and went to a Western Auto and bought a 12ga Revelation pump shotgun.


9 posted on 03/21/2011 6:46:39 AM PDT by umgud
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To: Eye of Unk
If they pass a law to take any guns we have lost. I don't care how many you have hidden.

If they are illegal own when are you going to use them buy a hunting lic.

You better have a gun register to you for the same ammo you own.

Do not let your nosey next door neigbor see them or hear you talk about them.

Do not get the wife mad at you or your freind that you were once great a buddy with.

If you can't freely use them when and how you want they are no use to you. It is kind of like having gold that you can not buy any thing with

. What good does it do you. Yep I have 5lbs of the stuff buried but I'll never be able to use it.

We have to defeat them before they make them illegal

10 posted on 03/21/2011 6:51:49 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: Sasparilla

Powder..patch..ball FIRE!

When I was a young tyke I can remember going into Central Hardware one day with my dad and they had two wooden barrels full of 98 Mausers.

He dug through the lot, checking actions and bore brightness and brought home one with us for $25.00.

That rifle killed a lot of whitetails, coyotes and tin cans over the years a lot of good memories.


11 posted on 03/21/2011 6:52:26 AM PDT by BallandPowder
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To: Sasparilla

At least we can still buy BP weapons through the us mail.


12 posted on 03/21/2011 7:07:24 AM PDT by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to...otherwise, things would be different)
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To: stevie_d_64
Oh silly me .... I thought that the /S> was so evident that I didn't need to put it in.

I'm old enough to remember when you were held responsible for your own actions. You could openly drive your car and drink a beer at the same time in front of a police officer and not get stopped as long as you weren't breaking any traffic laws, you could smoke just about anywhere without being drug into court, you could openly speak your mind no matter what your ethnicity, public land was ‘Public’ and you didn't have to pay to get on it and the law was for everyone not just the lower classes. Our children were safe playing out in yard and at school. I could go on but the list is to long.

13 posted on 03/21/2011 7:17:22 AM PDT by fella (.He that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough." Pv.28:19')
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To: fella

We’ve progressed alright, right into tyranny.

The corruption of our Government and the blatant infringements of our Rights absolutely disgusts me.


14 posted on 03/21/2011 7:22:56 AM PDT by BCR #226 (07/02 SOT www.extremefirepower.com...The BS stops when the hammer drops.)
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To: harpseal; TexasCowboy; nunya bidness; AAABEST; Travis McGee; Squantos; wku man; SLB; ...
In John Ross' Unintended Consequences, the protagonist acquired one of these Solothurn S-18/1000 20mm anti-tank rifles mail-order for around $167 before the 1968 GCA. Came with 100 rounds of ammo, too.

Click the Gadsden flag for pro-gun resources!

15 posted on 03/21/2011 7:30:02 AM PDT by Joe Brower (Sheep have three speeds: "graze", "stampede" and "cower".)
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To: Joe Brower

Great book.


16 posted on 03/21/2011 7:30:49 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: Sasparilla

AND there were firearms ads in the back of the Boy Scout Handbook!


17 posted on 03/21/2011 7:31:06 AM PDT by Afisra
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To: Sasparilla

my gawd, think of the children and the gunshow loophole...


18 posted on 03/21/2011 7:37:56 AM PDT by Gilbo_3 (Gov is not reason; not eloquent; its force.Like fire,a dangerous servant & master. George Washington)
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To: Sasparilla
This used to be a hell of a good country...


19 posted on 03/21/2011 7:42:56 AM PDT by Dr. Sheldon Cooper (If Mohammed were alive today, he wouldnÂ’t be allowed to live within 1000 yards of a school.)
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To: fella

I remember when you could drive through the liquor store window and get a beer a six pack a fifth of booze and some cigarettes without leaving the car. Then drive around on Friday night drinking it. As long as you were not drunk it was OK. I remember in college if you got pulled over for DWI (Before they changed it to DUI) most of the time the cop would just yell at you and then let your friends drive you home.

Everybody drove around (In the South) with loaded guns in the gun rack in the truck. My dad always kep a gun in the glove compartment of the car at all times. You could go out anywhere in the woods and shoot a gun and nobody freaked out if they heard it. We all learned how to shoot by age 12.

It was a different world and a better one. I’m so glad I grew up in the old America. Kids nowadays have no idea of the freedoms we had.


20 posted on 03/21/2011 7:43:57 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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