**This sporting purposes test was imposed by the Gun Control Act in 1968, a time when the right to self-defense with a firearm was not as widely respected by the courts as it is today.***
I remember the good old days before the 1968 Gun Control Law! You could buy a gun anywhere! Hardware stores, gas stations, clothing stores, department stores, order through the mail (but shipped to you by other means), Out of state purchases...No paperwork required, cash and carry!
The first call for Federal gun laws (1962)came from Thomas J Dodd and Emanuell Cellar, to register handguns. Long guns would not be affected, plus a ban on the import of 5 shot WWII Army surplus rifles and handguns as they cut into the business of the Eastern gun makers like Remmington, Winchester and Savage/Springfield.
They got their wish and rammed through the 1968 law after the Bobby Kennedy assasination (Never let a good crisis go to waste).
“Today we make America safe by taking guns out of the hands of criminals!” —Lyndon B Johnson, when he signed that travesty into law.
We can still order thru the mail...out of state..here in OK.
Sigh. Me too. Back in the late '50s, early 60s I lved in NYC, bought, on separate occasions, an Australian .310 Martini Cadet and a 45 Danish Rolling Block rifle from Ye Olde Hunter in California. They came wrapped in newspaper and wired to a piece of 1x6x5 board with no problems.
Sigh redux. In that same NYC, I could put my Mossberg Model 144 .22 in a rifle case, get on a bus and ride downtown to a rifle range when working on my NRA badges. Nobody ever raised an eyebrow or said a word.
Both instances show how far we have deteriorated.
I bought my first shotgun at a grocery store in Abilene, Texas- in the mid-eighties!
sigh- that was a great store....