Nixon Wanted Total Handgun Ban

But never acted on it

Few presidents in modern times have been as interested in gun control as Richard Nixon, of all people. He proposed ridding the market of Saturday night specials, contemplated banning handguns altogether and refused to pander to gun owners by feigning interest in their weapons.

Several previously unreported Oval Office recordings and White House memos from the Nixon years show a conservative president who at times appeared willing to take on the National Rifle Association, a powerful gun lobby then as now, even as his aides worried about the political ramifications.

"I don't know why any individual should have a right to have a revolver in his house," Nixon said in a taped conversation with aides. "The kids usually kill themselves with it and so forth." He asked why "can't we go after handguns, period?"

Comments

[Murph]

Who knew he was such a hero to the left?

[surfgeorge]

Notice the moronic ignorance (written of today's gun banners):

"Gun control advocates say no one needs such powerful weapons to kill an intruder or take down an animal."

ARs using .223 1. are far less powerful than almost all other rounds used for hunting, and 2. they are so lacking in power that many states ban them from hunting anything larger than varmints.

How can people so ignorant be taken even slightly seriously? It's a sad day indeed when the sponsor (Carolyn McCarthy) of a bill cannot identify critical definitions within her own legislation and erroneously and ignorantly states that a "muzzle shroud" is "the shoulder thing that goes up".