We were a free nation back then but we have progressed way beyond that now.
Man O Man do I remember those days and those adverts!
I also remember the local hardware stores and farm stores with their selection of guns.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
At least we can still buy BP weapons through the us mail.
AND there were firearms ads in the back of the Boy Scout Handbook!
my gawd, think of the children and the gunshow loophole...
facebooked the link for all those too young to remember these, or too commtard to appreciate the hypocracy of their fear of tools...
And it IS a 1911, manufactured in 1917...NOT a 1911A or A1...and it's in NRA 95% condition or better, all original, never fired since it's been in the family. Pap did me a favor, there.
I remember when ads in comic books featured Swiss-Rubins for 14.00.
Man those were the days. I wish we could go back to that.
GCA68 is patently Unconstitutional.
Everyone here knows it.
So why won’t the NRA come out and say it?
Bought my first firearm in the summer of 1964 with money I raised doing errands (no paperwork but a receipt). I was 7yrs old. I walked home with it shouldered 6 blocks (my father was with me). This was in Orange, CA.
I was 14 in 1957 and I had saved up enough money from working to buy a rifle, so my father said, "OK". I ordered one by mail and had it shipped by Railway Express right to our door. I still remember it being delivered. It was an Italian 7.35 Carcano carbine, complete with bayonet and about 60 rounds of soft point hunting ammo. It cost $23.50 (if I recall correctly), including shipping. It was really a bit crude, but it shot OK. I hunted with it for a few years until I had enough money to buy something better. Along the way since, I sold it.
Yup. Those were the days. A few years later I picked up a mint condition Argentine Mauser for $18 (the pick of a very nice Mauser litter) in either SEARS or the General Tire store (I forget which, as they both had surplus rifles). That was around 1959.
It seemed just about any hardware store, department store, tire store, and a lot of garages sold guns and ammo. And of course, you could always buy just about any gun you wanted (up to a 20 mm cannon) mail order with a postal money order and a shipping address. You just had to have the money and age was not even a factor. Paperwork? There was none.
Things were very orderly then. Nobody freaked out about guns at all. Owning and using them was completely normal and expected from the time one was "old enough" (mostly meaning, your Dad would let you go out and use one). It was never much considered anyone with a firearm was going to use it except for legal purposes, and we were taught firearms safety and were careful.
During hunting season, people commonly carried them around in the street. My buddy and I used to put .22s across the handlebars of our bikes and peddle several miles on the main public highway to where the big squirrels lived. Heck, during hunting season we even used to take our rifles to high school so we could save time and get in the woods right after school. The teachers would let us store them in the coat closets in the rear of the class rooms.
Since the Kennedy assassinations, the Liberal bedwetters have taken control and polluted the country beyond recognition. America was a free country back then, and what a wonderful place to live!