Whoa I take serious issue with the premise that GCA 68 was about crime control or that it failed. I have long been under the impression that it was a reaction to the race riots of 66-68 was really more about Negro Control than Gun Control per se.

By requiring guns to pass through a federally licensed storefront, it gave local jurisidictions the ability to shut gun stores out of urban black neighborhoods and generally raise the level of difficulty associated with acquiring arms. The other prong of attack was the destructive welfare programs of the 60s and 70s.

Am I really the only person to have observed this? If there isnt a paper on this already, someone should write it.

Hmm, there is a lot of interesting stuff in there about sporting purposes and the impossibility of preventing transfers to prohibited persons. I thought the number of guns in the US was 300-400k rather than 100k.

If you look at it as a protectionist bill written with slight input from people who hate guns, it makes a lot more sense.

That paper was written 31 years ago. Certainly explains the lack of post 70s data.

Interesting that the antis have been beating that same drum for so long- the familar old "it's not our social policies, its guns from out of state."

Beerslurpy:

280-300 million guns, not thousand (k) guns.