Gun Control Laws
1791
The Second Amendment is ratified.
1934
The National Firearms Act imposes a tax on the sale and transfer of machine guns and short-barrel firearms, including sawed-off shotguns. Passed just after Prohibition's repeal, it follows widespread outrage over gangsters like John Dillinger and Al Capone.
1938
The Federal Firearms Act requires federal licensing of gun dealers.
1968
The Gun Control Act, following the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., expands licensing and record-keeping requirements. It prohibits felons and the mentally ill from buying guns and bans the sale of mail-order firearms, including rifles and shotguns.
1972
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is created to oversee the regulation of gun sales.
1986
The Firearms Owners Protection Act eases some gun sale restrictions and bars the government from creating a database of gun dealer records. The law, which also authorizes sales of guns between private owners, reflects the growing influence of the National Rifle Association and a strongly pro-gun Reagan administration.
1993
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, named for the press secretary disabled by the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, requires gun dealers—although not private sellers—to run background checks on purchasers and authorizes the creation of a national database.
1994
The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, passed by a Democratic Congress, bans the sale of new assault weapons for 10 years.
2003
The Tiahrt Amendment prohibits the disclosure of trace data about guns used in crimes. Following a wave of lawsuits against gun dealers, Congress also protects gun manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits if their guns are used in crimes.
2004
The assault weapons ban expires under a Republican-controlled Congress.
2007
After the massacre at Virginia Tech, Congress closes a loophole in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System by requiring states to automate lists of people prohibited from buying firearms, including felons and the mentally ill, and put them in the federal database.
Reader Comments
gun laws
i live in phila where the mayor took it upon himself to enact new gun laws,which are all against the law.lets get real about this issue its not guns or knives or swords or anything considered a weapon.its the people in this city,if the people of the northeast could get away from,west phila,north phila,half of south phila,crime WOULD BE CUT TO NOTHING?????double police patrols in those areas and see what happenes.now im not allowed to say things like this because im WHITE AND THAT WILL MAKE ME A RACIEST,so lets get real when we say GUNS ARE THE PROBLEM.
crazies without guns
as someone who was once diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (never had any violent intentions) i dont like my rights taken away because of that virginia tech thing. its not very constitutional.
then again, i think they should ban guns. but it's not like i did anything wrong to have my protection taken away.
the fact that they called that a loophole also annoys me.
1994 Law (The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act)
Laura,
You are kind of right, but ...
Assault Rifles are fully automatic, eg M16.. AK47.
Assault Weapons (oxymoron) is a contrived term used to classify Military "Look A-like" weapons, as you said SEMI-AUTOMATIC cosmetic cousins of military weapons. Things like flash suppressors, bayonet lugs et al.
Find a link here http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/billfs.txt
inserted from link
Assault Weapons
Bans the manufacture of 19 military-style assault weapons, assault
weapons with specific combat features, "copy-cat" models, and certain
high-capacity ammunition magazines of more than ten rounds.
end inserted from link
and a wiki link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Crime_Control_and_Law_Enforcement_Act
If we must do our research, then we must do our research
John W
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