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Nixon a gun control proponent?
So it would seem, based on the latest batch of White House tapes released.
"He asked why “can't we go after handguns, period?”
Nixon went on: “I know the rifle association will be against it, the gun makers will be against it.” But “people should not have handguns.”
He laced his comments with some more colorful words not fit for the Sunday newspaper."
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I didn't think the NRA did much lobbying prior to the Cincinnati revolt in 1977. I wonder how much evidence that Frederic Frommer really has that the NRA stopped the bill other the memory of 85 year old Birch Bayh?
I have known about Nixon's severe anti-gun views for years. "
In 1969, journalist William Safire asked Richard Nixon what he thought about gun control. "Guns are an abomination," Nixon replied. According to Safire, Nixon went on to confess that, "Free from fear of gun owners' retaliation at the polls, he favored making handguns illegal and requiring licenses for hunting rifles."
While the Rs are more supportive than the Ds they cannot be counted on to be our friends in all cases. Reagan signed legislation with the Hughes Amendment, G.H.W. Bush signed a ban on imports and provide Clinton the basis for the AW ban, G.W. Bush never really took a strong stand in support of letting the AW ban die, he just didn't do anything to prevent the sunset. One set of politicians is just as likely to stab you in the back as the next.
It would be wrong to suggest that the wrong fellow got offed by Oswald . . . so I won't.
H.R. Haldeman recounted in one of his memoirs that Nixon ordered him to implement serial numbers on bullets. Haldeman characterized it as one of many "Oh, sh!t" moments as Chief of Staff. He ignored the order and when Nixon asked about it later, explained it wasn't feasible to implement.
To Nixon, *privately-owned* guns were an abomination. Another abomination was anybody who discovered something illegal he'd done and reported it.
On the other hand, secretly dropping 110,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia wasn't an abomination. Nor was lying, if he was doing the lying.
But if somebody caught him lying and told the truth about him, they were abominable.
Why do we care what he thought about gun control?
Another reason not to like Nixon? Ho hum.
Maybe those r false quotes to make Nixon look bad ? Maybe false quotes to make more support for bans ?
Is this really a surprise considering that Nixon is the same president that gave us OSHA, the EPA, and the DEA?