Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Lyndon Johnson's Gun Control Plan

 The Washington Post

Johnson’s bill would ban all mail-order and out-of-state sales of handguns, shotguns and rifles; prohibit the sale of guns to minors; and require national registration of all guns and licensing of all gun owners. There had been little hope of enactment. But the day after Kennedy died from gunshot wounds, LBJ renewed his pressure on the Senate Judiciary Committee to report his bill out and send it to the Senate floor for a vote.

Maryland Sen. Joseph Tydings, a close friend of Kennedy, and a couple of Democratic colleagues wanted the committee to consider a bill they believed was stronger. LBJ thought the Tydings proposal had no chance of passage and feared that any delay to consider it would give the gun lobby time to kill his legislation.

That’s exactly what happened. The Tydings proposal never got beyond the discussion phase, and LBJ’s comprehensive bill failed by a tie vote in the committee. With relentless pressure, he was able to get a bill by October with a prohibition against mail-order sales (LBJ called it “murder by mail order”), sale of guns to minors and importation of “$10 specials,” or cheap guns that were pouring into the country. But Johnson’s pet proposals to license all gun owners and register all guns were defeated.
What's fascinating is the way pro-gun folks talk about licensing and registration as if it could never happen. Back in the '60s, it was only prevented by a tie vote.  How many of the know-it-all gun-rights advocates even knew that?

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

8 comments:

  1. Yeah make every gun owner register just like Hitler did, nothing wrong with that.

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    1. The Hitler comparison. That's the sign of superior intelligence and a good strong argument.

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    2. He does serve as a warning: If you're thinking of doing what Hitler did, think again.

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  2. It was a tie vote in committee. Had it passed in committee it still would have had to go through the full Senate vote, and we're not even talking about the House. It was not yet as close as you make it out to be (not saying it couldn't have been, but it never got near that point).

    And Anon is right. Nothing wrong with following in Hitlers footsteps, is there?

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  3. This would be the same president who thought he could win a war on poverty by mindlessly throwing money at the problem and a war in Vietnam by mindlessly throwing lives.

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    1. Funny that Mike mentioned Sen. Tydings. I was going to use him as an example next time you ask me who I am.

      Hence my anonymity. I dare not face the repercussions associated with (what many will call) an "avocation of tyranny".

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    2. Translated into English, E.N. is telling us that he's a nobody.

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    3. You speak from experience. You are incapable of making a coherent argument, so you resort the the methods of the oh so awful "gun-control side".

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