The National Rifle Association was not the radical organization it has become until a coup in 1977. It had supported the National Firearms Act (which banned machine guns and sawed-off shotguns), the Federal Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), which together created a system to federally license gun dealers and established restrictions on particular categories and classes of firearms. Wikipedia

It wasn't until the 1960's and the Black Panther movement that gun-carry rights became a "thing" (The Secret History of Guns - the Atlantic), although it had been discussed when the 14th Amendment was debated. The Panthers inspired California to ban the practice.
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Republicans in California eagerly supported increased gun control. Governor Reagan told reporters that afternoon that he saw “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” He called guns a “ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.” In a later press conference, Reagan said he didn’t “know of any sportsman who leaves his home with a gun to go out into the field to hunt or for target shooting who carries that gun loaded.” The Mulford Act, he said, “would work no hardship on the honest citizen.”
My how times have changed. Gun control has, historically, been used to suppress minorities. And now gun advocacy is used for that purpose.


A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.

Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich