Posted on 06/17/2015 9:02:29 AM PDT by rktman
Gun control is something that did not start recently although it has become stricter. When did gun control even start in the United States? Aside from when America started as a country and the British trying to disarm us, we go back to when we passed laws in our own states to control certain weapons distribution. We are going back to the 1920s.
The Federal government started its gun control policies in response to the waging wars of the gangs in 1934 with the National Firearms Act of 1934. This enacted a long series of measures trying to stop the spread of increasingly destructive firearms in gang violence. Weapons involved were the sawed off shotgun, machine guns, and suppressors. The NFA was signed into law on June 26th, and Bonnie and Clyde died July 22.
(Excerpt) Read more at gunsnfreedom.com ...
I would say soon after the first modern Democrat crawled out from under it’s rock.
IIRC, the shoot-out at Lot #42 and on Fremont street behind the OK Corral happened in late 1881.
You're correct that the final straw for the outlaw Cowboy faction was No Carry Within Town Limits. They were fed up with the town leaning towards the Earps' attempts to make it civilized.
If the Cowboys hadn't been so antagonistic since the Earps arrived in their town, Virgil Earp (town Marshal) might have played a different card that day. But the Cowboys had repeatedly threatened the Earps and the Earps lost patience and such is history.
The Vendetta Ride is especially noteworthy and never depicted until the movies Tombstone and Wyatt Earp (Kevin Costner).
For the (2) definitive books on the Earp/Cowboys saga, and I've read many:
1. Inventing Wyatt Earp by Allen Barra;
2. Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind The Legend by Casey Tefertiller.
Both include historical documents, including court records, depositions by eye witness accounts of the gunfight, witnessed commentary by the 2 opposing newpapers (one pro Earp - the other pro Clanton), diary entries, etc. They are difficult reads since they don't follow the timeline well, but provide all the known facts and hearsay and opinions and refute the ancestors of Clantons' assertions by commonsense. They actually claim one or more Earps held up a stage. Nonsense.
Bottom line: The Cowboys were the first known organized gangsters in the West. The Earps were LEO's, although Wyatt was not rehired in Dodge City or Wichita for over-zealous enforcement (pisto-whipping with his Colt). Can't recall, but I think even Warren Earp was a LEO for a short time.
Sorry, I didn’t realize you were including a fictional character with a real person.
Yup. That's why I give the Earps a break for enforcing the No Guns In City Limits ordinance imposed by the mayor. This is another day where law-abiding citizens need guns to protect themselves from the criminal element, as they do almost every day and rarely reported.
In a one main street town like Tombstone, a few LEO's could handle things, as they do in fly-over small towns. In a large modern city there are not enough LEO's to prevent mayhem as in Fergueson, Baltimore, and daily in Detroit, Chicago, Philly, St. Louis, Los Angeles, DC, etc.
I know, I know......When it comes to gunslingers and marshals, separating the two becomes difficult in my mind
The open carry of pistols was outlawed in Texas except under limited conditions just after the Civil War. Politicians were afraid of the populace.
The idea that there were a lot of crimes committed with machineguns and sawed off shotguns was just the latest in media driven laws.
It did not have any real basis in reality. Crimes with machineguns were vanishingly small in number. Crimes with pistols were, as now hundreds of times more common than crimes with sawed off shotguns.
The 1934 act was aimed directly at pistols. It failed in that, and we were left with the stupid leftovers.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2015/01/batf-pistol-brace-letter-and-irrational.html
I’m probably one of the few here, who at different times in his life, has twice had best friends who insisted on carrying a sawed off shotgun, on a cord around their neck, and concealed inside their clothing.
Yes all correct. Apparently gun control started as the civil war ended. Jim Crowe etc to disarm Africans in america.
**Could one postulate that even earlier than that when some western towns required cow pokes to turn in their guns when they came to town after a long cattle drive?***
Only because the cowboys were from a Southern state. Locals in Kansas were still allowed to keep their guns, and often backed up the local law enforcement.
The British also called in all the native owned firearms, for registration, in South Africa back in the 1880s. Then they refused to give the guns back.
When the natives protested, the British relented and gave back the guns in an un-shootable condition.
A few years ago, I read a reprint of an article by a former member of the 6th Calvary who was stationed near Tombstone.
The old trooper lived to be over a hundred and his opinion of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday was not very complimentary. I do recall he said Earp was a pimp and pinned on the badge when it was to his advantage. He described Doc Holliday as an insane killer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.