Dave Hardy thinks we may be going backwards on gun rights. Backwards to before the 60s, that is:
Add in DC v. Heller, and the likely outcome of McDonald v. Chicago. The press becoming almost even handed on the gun issue. I think we’re looking at an enormous cultural shift here. It’s a reversal of the shift that occurred in the 1960s. In 1960, firearm ownership was quite acceptable. President Kennedy was happy to accept life membership in the NRA. Somewhere in the early 60s, the American Bar Assn gave an award for a pro-individual rights article on the Second Amendment. And you’ve probably heard we ancients speak of the days when universities had rifle teams and students thought nothing of bringing guns to school. Then came the 60s — three assassinations in 1963-68, the summer riots, and by the later 60s guns were the source of all social ills, and anyone who would defend their ownership was a neanderthal, a fool, or a selfish social menace.
Fifty years later, we may be switching back.
The issue has come a long long way even from the time I first became aware of it. The earliest recollection I have in regards to the debate on gun control was the fight over the Brady Bill. But probably the think that convinced me that gun control was pretty much a load of BS was the fight over the assault weapons bans, which started in the late 80s. Even as a kid from a non-gun-owning family I knew what the difference was between fully automatic and semi-automatic, and knew what they were selling to civilians were semi-auto. Nonetheless, there’s the major networks trying to bilk the public by showing fully automatic weapons. Things were still rough in the late 199s, but since the turn of the century everything has changed dramatically.
Blog fodder is a good bellwether, I think, and the amount of things I’ve had to write about, in regards to media bias, has fallen off substantially. The media is largely ignoring the gun issue, as I would expect when everyone is worried about the country going broke, a crappy economy, and losing their jobs. Another big contributing factor Obama has ignored the issue, and refrained from using the bully pulpit on the issue of guns. That benefits us. Dave might be right. I do think there’s been a culture shift. Maybe we are headed back to the future.
Until some jackass takes a shot at him and we’re back to the 60’s.
We had a rifle team in our high schools in Chattanooga, Tenn. and at most other schools in the state, also. Our Rotc programs trained with and carried M1 Grands, with only the firing pin removed, We had to learn how to disasemble the weapon completely in order to clean them. The ROTC Drill Team, of which I was a part of, drilled and did routines with the M1 rifle and with bayonets (chromed) attached. We took first place at a Ft. Benning contest, even placing over regular Army competitors. I was way ahead of pack in boot camp.
One more thing, you could buy guns just about anywhere without permission. The Army Navy Surplus stores even sold old military weapons from WW1 and WW2.
The link to Dave Hardy’s piece and then consquently the article in the examiner.com about the “I’ll scratch your back if you sratch mine” between the Violence Policy Center and the Joyce Foundation is an excellent analysis of how the VPC is crumbling and without ‘big sis’ in Chicago they would be down and out…