Largest Gun Study Ever: More Guns, More Murder

[MicaelS]

172. This "intense debate" has been going on for 40 years.

The NRA didn't become as powerful as it is today (The 1977 Cincinnati Revolt) until Gun Prohibition Advocates started advocating the Prohibition of Handguns, then Semi-Automatics, and for some Gun Prohibition Advocates, all guns. Gun Prohibition Advocates sowed the wind, and reaped the whirlwind. Gun Prohibition Advocates have no one to blame but themselves. You do not attempt to take people rights and freedoms away, and then claim it's their fault when they react.

Another factor contributing to the change in the NRA was the realization that the "Fudds" (those who believe the only purpose of owning guns was to hunt) would be perfectly willing to sell out other guns owners as long as they were allowed to keep their hunting guns. And the non-hunters were not about to let themselves be sold out.

The rise of various organizations seeking to strictly limit or ban handguns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Campaign

Mark Borinsky founded the National Council to Control Handguns in 1974

Also involved was Nelson T. (Pete) Shields III whose son, Nelson 4th, was shot and killed in San Francisco in 1975, a victim in a series of racially motivated killings of whites by four blacks that came to be known as the Zebra killings.

"We'll take one step at a time, and the first is necessarily - given the political realities - very modest. We'll have to start working again to strengthen the law, and then again to strengthen the next law and again and again. Our ultimate goal, total control of handguns, is going to take time. The first problem is to slow down production and sales. Next is to get registration. The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and ammunition (with a few exceptions) totally illegal."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_to_Stop_Gun_Violence

In 1974, the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society formed the National Coalition to Ban Handguns, a group of thirty religious, labor, and nonprofit organizations with the goal of addressing "the high rates of gun-related crime and death in American society" by licensing gun owners, registering firearms, and banning private ownership of handguns with "reasonable limited exceptions" for “police, military, licensed security guards, antique dealers who have guns in unfireable condition, and licensed pistol clubs where firearms are kept on the premises.” In the 1980s and 1990s, the coalition grew to 44 member groups. In 1989, the National Coalition to Ban Handguns changed its name to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, in part because the group felt that "assault rifles" as well as handguns, should be outlawed.