The Death of John Glenn
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R.I.P.
Before he drank the Kennedy Koolaid,he was highly decorated fighter pilot in WWII and Korea and received a shit ton of medals.
Yeah, I'll judge him on the whole, and don't doubt that he was a patriot. The late 60s were a different era - and some normally pro individual rights Americans, like Glenn, probably thought they were doing good after prominent assassinations - and continued down that path. Not sure what his gun control politics were in the past decade when views in the country have shifted (and more and more states moved to shall issue or Constitutional carry). Important figures should be judged in the context of their times - be they George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, or Ronald Reagan. John Glenn is an important, historical figure, that we, as Americans, have much to be proud of (in my opinion, of course).
To paraphrase Stannis Baratheon:
"The Second Amendment is mine by rights. All those who deny that are my foes."
1) your "foe" is dead.
2) I'm not going to put Glenn in the same category as others deserving of the title, such as Castro.
3) Stannis had awful judgement and killed his young daughter to further his ambitions.
4) You know where Georgoe RR Martin stands on gun rights, I presume. Friend or foe?
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
PapiBarcelona
Ultimate Member
- Jan 1, 2011
- 7,362
Something about astronauts and anti 2A. What really goes on up there?
But seriously, Mr Glenn has done amazing feats that pretty much all of us will only ever get to watch from the sidelines.
But seriously, Mr Glenn has done amazing feats that pretty much all of us will only ever get to watch from the sidelines.
j_h_smith
Ultimate Member
- Jul 28, 2007
- 28,516
I can acknowledge what he did as a professional and be proud of his accomplishments. I can cringe when I think of the things he's done to try to tear down the 2A. It's up to you to determine how you remember John Glenn.
There is a reason we don't accept people closely connected to murder victims to serve on juries for murder trials. We don't accept relatives of people killed by drunk drivers to serve on juries judging drunk drivers.
John Glenn basically admitted he went on the warpath against guns because of his affection and devotion of his friend, RFK. The fair way to craft laws is for legislators who have family members and close friends harmed by particular circumstances be required to recuse themselves from the law-making because it is known they cannot be dispassionate in the way that law-making requires.
John Glenn basically admitted he went on the warpath against guns because of his affection and devotion of his friend, RFK. The fair way to craft laws is for legislators who have family members and close friends harmed by particular circumstances be required to recuse themselves from the law-making because it is known they cannot be dispassionate in the way that law-making requires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBvBH2ej_lM
please watch
please watch
The planks of the Glenn Committee:
You must help stop the killing. Demand rigid gun laws. Laws that:
1. restrict hand guns and ammunition to law enforcement and military use-and to private citizens who meet reasonable official qualifications.
2. require registration of all guns and ammunition sold.
3. forbid all mail order sales of guns and ammunition. You can do something. Write your Congressmen. (Or sign this ad and send it.)
It can't wait.
You must help stop the killing. Demand rigid gun laws. Laws that:
1. restrict hand guns and ammunition to law enforcement and military use-and to private citizens who meet reasonable official qualifications.
2. require registration of all guns and ammunition sold.
3. forbid all mail order sales of guns and ammunition. You can do something. Write your Congressmen. (Or sign this ad and send it.)
It can't wait.
Ramsey Clark Urges Senators to Support the Registration of Firearms
By JOHN W. FINNEY
Special to The New York Times
Jun 27, 1968
....(EXCERPTED)....
In arguing for stronger controls, Colonel Glenn, a friend of Senator Kennedy's, recalled how it had been his "awful duty" to tell six children of the Senator that their father had been killed.
"We simply cannot permit such senseless killing to continue," he said. "We must do all we can to prevent those who should not have guns from getting them."
Colonel Glenn said that the Emergency Committee, composed of prominent citizens, took the position that at the minimum an "effective" bill must contain registration and licensing as well as a ban on interstate sales.
By JOHN W. FINNEY
Special to The New York Times
Jun 27, 1968
....(EXCERPTED)....
In arguing for stronger controls, Colonel Glenn, a friend of Senator Kennedy's, recalled how it had been his "awful duty" to tell six children of the Senator that their father had been killed.
"We simply cannot permit such senseless killing to continue," he said. "We must do all we can to prevent those who should not have guns from getting them."
Colonel Glenn said that the Emergency Committee, composed of prominent citizens, took the position that at the minimum an "effective" bill must contain registration and licensing as well as a ban on interstate sales.
This is what John Glenn was fighting for:
The New York Times
Jun 25, 1968
Cover Page and Page 24
PRESIDENT CALLS FOR REGISTERING OF ALL FIREARMS
…
PLEA TO CONGRESS
…
Bill, Due Today, Also to Require Licensing of Gun Owners
Text of President's message is printed on Page 24.
By MAX FRANKEL
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 24--President Johnson asked Congress today to require the national registration of every firearm and a license for every gun owner whose state does not enforce Federal license standards.
Sensing an aroused public opinion and wishing to channel the pressures developing on Capitol Hill, Mr. Johnson accelerated for the second time in a week his efforts for more gun controls.
The Administration's new proposals were outlined in a message to Congress this afternoon and will be submitted as a bill, tomorrow morning.
The President said that he did hot want the new measure to delay a pending bill to limit the sales of rifles and shotguns. But exactly how Congress will proceed probably will not become clear until the Senate Judiciary Committee considers the whole subject on Wednesday.
Tydings Bill Cited
Proposals similar to those embraced by the Administration today have been introduced formally by, Senator Joseph D. Tydings, Democrat of Maryland.
He welcomed the White House action as a "tremendous boost" and said the President's leadership and the "ground-swell" of public and Congressional support "may at last break the gun-lobby stranglehold on effective gun legislation."
The Administration's measure goes beyond the Tydings bill in two respects.
It requires national registration, regardless of state registry, to permit the National Crime Information Center of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to compile a comprehensive computer file of every gun in the nation — between 50 and 100 million, according to current estimates.
Moreover, to punish states that do not establish effective license systems for gun owners, Mr. Johnson would deprive them of funds from the Wildlife and Conservation Trust Fund. Last year it redistributed $23-million collected in excise taxes on gun and ammunition sales.
Glenn Leads Drive
Another strong source of support for registration and licensing developed here today with the announcement that Col. John H. Glenn Jr., the former astronaut and associate of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was leading many prominent citizens in a nationwide write-in campaign organized by the Emergency Committee for Gun Control.
The committee disclosed that Vice President Humphrey and Governor Rockefeller had responded favorably to its request for support from all Presidential candidates.
The organization's executive committee will be composed of Thomas J Watson Jr., chairman of the board of Internationa). Business Machines Corporation; Adlai Stevenson 3d, Treasurer of Illinois; John W. Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare; Charles Evers, Mississippi field director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and John V. Bennett, president of the National Council for a Responsible Firearms Policy.
It was not clear whether the committee's nationwide effort, the maneuvering in Congress and the spontaneous efforts of students and housewives in many communities had any direct effect on the schedule of action in. the White House.
But Mr. Johnson has been moving faster even than he thought he could when he revived his pressure for gun controls, on June 6, the day Senator Kennedy died.
Congress completed action that day on an omnibus crime bill; that included a limitation on the sales of handguns by mail and to minors and others deemed unfit to possess them. The President called this a halfway measure and demanded follow-up action for similar limitations on the sales of rifles and shotguns.
In signing the crime bill last Wednesday, he again urged quick action , on the second step, and Congress appears to be heeding his and the public's advice. Once that bill was passed, the President said, he would come back with still other proposals.
Today, without waiting for Congress to catch up, he offered those proposals.
Mr. Johnson's message, an abbreviated version of which he read for movie and television cameras in the White House Fish Room, anticipated even greater resistance from hunters, gun clubs, some manufacturers and their representatives and lobbyists here.
He argued against their case, as follows:
"Registration and licensing have long been an accepted part of daily life in America. Automobiles, boats, even dogs and bicycles in many communities, are commonly registered. Our citizens must get licenses to fish, to hunt and to drive.
"Certainly no less should be required for the possession of lethal weapons that have caused so much horror and heartbreak in this country. Surely the slight inconvenience for the few is minimal, when measured against protection for all."
What Bill Provides
The Administration's bill would allow 180 days for the registration of every gun, perhaps at post offices or other Federal agencies in the community. Thereafter, failure to register a firearm would be punishable with two years in jail and fines up to $2,000.
Mr. Johnson said that he would prefer the states to take the initiative in issuing licenses, preferably through a uniform law that at the minimum would deny guns to criminals, dope addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and others whose possession of guns would be deemed harmful to the public health or safety.
His bill would require a Federal license of all citizens whose state had not enacted these minimal Federal standards within two years.
A Federal license, as now envisioned, would cost $1 and require the photographing and fingerprinting of the applicant. Rifle and shotgun licenses would be available to persons over 18; handgun licenses to persons over 21.
- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -
Text of Johnson Gun Message
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 24— Following is the text of President Johnson's message to Congress proposing tighter gun controls:
Within the hour, in some city in America, a gun shot will ring out. And someone will fall dead or wounded. Unless we act purposefully to prevent it, reckless and wild gunfire will be heard again—tomorrow, the day after and all the days to follow.
—As it was last Tuesday, when a 71-year-old gas station attendant was shot to death in the course of a $75 armed robbery;
—As it was last Wednesday, in Graceville, Fla., When a mental patient shot a 3year-old boy through the back of the head;
—As it was last Thursday, in Chicago, when a young man was killed and three others injured by shotgun blasts fired by a band of roving teenagers.
These tragedies are imbedded in the grim statistics of death and destruction at gun point. The terrible toll is rising.
The latest report of the Federal Bureau of Investigation documents a shocking increase in crimes where deadly weapons are the instruments of violence.
Figures on Murders
In 1967, there were:
—7,700 murders with guns. In 1966 there were 6,500.
—55,000 aggravated assaults with guns. In 1966 there were 43,000.
—Over 71,000 robberies with guns. In 1966 there were 60,000.
It took this country nearly two centuries to respond to-the danger of guns in criminal and incompetent hands. The first Federal, action came in the early 1930's, when the Congress enacted safeguards controlling the use of sawed-off shotguns and submachine guns to answer the public indignation and fear arising out of organized gang wars in the cities.
But very little was done in the next three decades, while the velocity of speeding bullets exacted their deadly toll across America. Alone among the modern nations of the world, we remained -without the gun control laws that other countries accept as an elementary need and condition of life.
We can see the difference in the last reported comparisons of homicides by gunfire. Out of 15 countries reporting, the United States ranked, worst—with a rate of 2.7 gun murders per 100,000 population. Here are some of the statistics:
—2.7 for the United States
—0.03 in the Netherlands and 0.04 in Japan.
— 2.7 for the United States
— 0.05 in England and Wales.
— 2.7 for the United States
— 0.12 in West Germany and 0.70 in Italy.
— 2.7 for the United States
— 0.52 in Canada and 0.26 in Belgium.
Since I first became President, I have fought for strong gun control-laws.
Now—at long last—we have begun to move. When I signed the Safe Streets Act last week, America took the first major step to control deadly firearms. That measure outlawed the interstate traffic in handguns and prohibited the sale of these small and lethal weapons to minors.
We are now within sight of the second major step— the control of interstate traffic in shotguns, rifles and ammunition, as I requested of the Congress on June 6. I hope the Congress will move with the greatest speed to complete its action on this proposal for protection.
But even before that step is finally completed, we must look to the next advance for the safety of the American people.
With the enactment of these measures, we will have constructed the nation's first foundation upon which the states can build and develop their own gun control laws. Without this bulwark of interstate protection, even the best state laws would be exercises in futility.
To assure the protection of our people, Federal laws need two additional reinforcements:
*A national registration of all firearms, both those already in private hands and those acquired in the future.
*Federal licensing of all possessors of firearms in those states whose laws fail to meet minimum Federal, standards.
Registration and licensing have long been an accepted part of daily life in America. Automobiles, boats — even dogs, and bicycles in many communities—are commonly registered. Our citizens must get licenses to fish, to hunt and to drive. Certainly no less should be required for the possession of lethal weapons that have caused so much horror and heartbreak in this country. Surely the slight inconvenience for the few is minimal, when measured against protection for all.
I propose, first, the national registration of every gun in America.
There are now more firearms than families in America. The estimates range between 50 and 100 million guns in this country. Last year more than 3 million guns were added to private stocks, building; a massive arsenal which arms the murderer and the robber.
Registration will tell us how many guns there are, where they are and in whose hands they are held.
Car registration has been the major factor in solving hit-and-run auto deaths. The new National Crime Information Center, operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has already begun to compile arid computerize data on stolen automobiles; stolen guns, fugitives from justice and other criminal activities.
Now, for the first - time, computer technology has made the national registration of guns practical and workable. The registration of guns can be fed into a computer bank at the National Crime Information Center. Through this system, the owner of a gun anywhere in the country can be identified in a matter of seconds.
Licenses Urged
Second, I propose that every individual in this country be required to obtain a license before he is entrusted with a gun.
Every murder by gunfire is a criminal confrontation in which—by design or through a conspiracy of events—the criminal faces his victim through the telescope crosshairs of a rifle or over the barrel of a pistol. An inflamed moment seizes the criminal's mind, and his finger presses the trigger.
We may never be able to keep that criminal mind from erupting into violence, but we can stay the finger that squeezes the trigger — by keeping the gun out of the murderer's hand.
The surest route to accomplish this is to require every, person who wants a gun to be licensed, first proving that he meets the qualifications.
The initiative for licensing should, of course, rest with the states, for there licensing can most effectively be carried out. Some states have already enacted comprehensive licensing laws which prevent the vicious, the irresponsible and the insane from acquiring firearms.
In New Jersey, for example, which has had a licensing law for only a short period of time, over 1,500 disqualified persons have been denied access to lethal weapons. And states which have licensing requirements have lower homicide rates.
The states are now working, on model gun control laws through a special committee of the National Association of Attorneys General, The National Council of State Governments and the National Governors Conference. I have urged that their work be expeditiously pursued.
To assure uniformity and adequate protection, the law I propose would establish minimum Federal licensing standards. These would prevent firearms from being sold to or possessed by criminals, dope addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and any others whose possession of guns would be harmful to the public health, safety or welfare.
A Plea to States
The Federal licensing law would go into effect only in those states without at least comparable standards, and only after the states have been given an opportunity to act first.
I call upon every Governor and state legislature to move as rapidly as they can to enact forceful laws for the protection, of their people.
Nothing in these proposals will impair the legitimate ownership or use of guns in this country. In other countries which have sensible laws, the hunter and the sportsman thrive. These measures will entail no more inconvenience for the gun owners than dog tags or automobile license plates pose for any citizen.
Nor are they threats to the mystique of manhood or to the heritage of our people. Only the potential murderer's chance to kill and only the potential robber's chance to terrorize are threatened.
The only heritage that is harmed, is the record of violent death and destruction that shames our history.
The proposals in this message are no more and no less than common sense safe guards which any civilized nation must apply for the safety of its people.
The American people have been too long without them. The cost of inaction through the decades affronts our conscience.
History Is Cited
Homes and city streets across the nation which might have rung with gunfire will be spared the tragedy of senseless slaughter. We will never be able to measure this violence that does not erupt. But our history tells us America will be a safer country if we move now—once and forever—to complete the protection so long denied our people.
I urge the Congress, as I have throughout all the days of my Presidency, to act immediately to control , interstate sales of shotguns, rifles and ammunition.
Hearings on this legislation have long since been completed. The legislation has been reported favorably by the House Judiciary Committee and the Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That legislation — providing basic protection against interstate slaughter by firearms—should be brought to a vote without delay.
Once that foundation of interstate protection has been established, the registration and licensing proposals made in this message should be enacted, But these proposals afford no justification for delay in enacting strong and effective controls over interstate traffic of deadly weapons. Indeed, they build upon the foundation of interstate control which is so essential to their effectiveness.
Let us delay no longer in enacting that basic foundation of interstate protection and then let us go on to build —through registration and licensing—the kind of protection so long denied the American citizen.
The New York Times
Jun 25, 1968
Cover Page and Page 24
PRESIDENT CALLS FOR REGISTERING OF ALL FIREARMS
…
PLEA TO CONGRESS
…
Bill, Due Today, Also to Require Licensing of Gun Owners
Text of President's message is printed on Page 24.
By MAX FRANKEL
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 24--President Johnson asked Congress today to require the national registration of every firearm and a license for every gun owner whose state does not enforce Federal license standards.
Sensing an aroused public opinion and wishing to channel the pressures developing on Capitol Hill, Mr. Johnson accelerated for the second time in a week his efforts for more gun controls.
The Administration's new proposals were outlined in a message to Congress this afternoon and will be submitted as a bill, tomorrow morning.
The President said that he did hot want the new measure to delay a pending bill to limit the sales of rifles and shotguns. But exactly how Congress will proceed probably will not become clear until the Senate Judiciary Committee considers the whole subject on Wednesday.
Tydings Bill Cited
Proposals similar to those embraced by the Administration today have been introduced formally by, Senator Joseph D. Tydings, Democrat of Maryland.
He welcomed the White House action as a "tremendous boost" and said the President's leadership and the "ground-swell" of public and Congressional support "may at last break the gun-lobby stranglehold on effective gun legislation."
The Administration's measure goes beyond the Tydings bill in two respects.
It requires national registration, regardless of state registry, to permit the National Crime Information Center of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to compile a comprehensive computer file of every gun in the nation — between 50 and 100 million, according to current estimates.
Moreover, to punish states that do not establish effective license systems for gun owners, Mr. Johnson would deprive them of funds from the Wildlife and Conservation Trust Fund. Last year it redistributed $23-million collected in excise taxes on gun and ammunition sales.
Glenn Leads Drive
Another strong source of support for registration and licensing developed here today with the announcement that Col. John H. Glenn Jr., the former astronaut and associate of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was leading many prominent citizens in a nationwide write-in campaign organized by the Emergency Committee for Gun Control.
The committee disclosed that Vice President Humphrey and Governor Rockefeller had responded favorably to its request for support from all Presidential candidates.
The organization's executive committee will be composed of Thomas J Watson Jr., chairman of the board of Internationa). Business Machines Corporation; Adlai Stevenson 3d, Treasurer of Illinois; John W. Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare; Charles Evers, Mississippi field director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and John V. Bennett, president of the National Council for a Responsible Firearms Policy.
It was not clear whether the committee's nationwide effort, the maneuvering in Congress and the spontaneous efforts of students and housewives in many communities had any direct effect on the schedule of action in. the White House.
But Mr. Johnson has been moving faster even than he thought he could when he revived his pressure for gun controls, on June 6, the day Senator Kennedy died.
Congress completed action that day on an omnibus crime bill; that included a limitation on the sales of handguns by mail and to minors and others deemed unfit to possess them. The President called this a halfway measure and demanded follow-up action for similar limitations on the sales of rifles and shotguns.
In signing the crime bill last Wednesday, he again urged quick action , on the second step, and Congress appears to be heeding his and the public's advice. Once that bill was passed, the President said, he would come back with still other proposals.
Today, without waiting for Congress to catch up, he offered those proposals.
Mr. Johnson's message, an abbreviated version of which he read for movie and television cameras in the White House Fish Room, anticipated even greater resistance from hunters, gun clubs, some manufacturers and their representatives and lobbyists here.
He argued against their case, as follows:
"Registration and licensing have long been an accepted part of daily life in America. Automobiles, boats, even dogs and bicycles in many communities, are commonly registered. Our citizens must get licenses to fish, to hunt and to drive.
"Certainly no less should be required for the possession of lethal weapons that have caused so much horror and heartbreak in this country. Surely the slight inconvenience for the few is minimal, when measured against protection for all."
What Bill Provides
The Administration's bill would allow 180 days for the registration of every gun, perhaps at post offices or other Federal agencies in the community. Thereafter, failure to register a firearm would be punishable with two years in jail and fines up to $2,000.
Mr. Johnson said that he would prefer the states to take the initiative in issuing licenses, preferably through a uniform law that at the minimum would deny guns to criminals, dope addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and others whose possession of guns would be deemed harmful to the public health or safety.
His bill would require a Federal license of all citizens whose state had not enacted these minimal Federal standards within two years.
A Federal license, as now envisioned, would cost $1 and require the photographing and fingerprinting of the applicant. Rifle and shotgun licenses would be available to persons over 18; handgun licenses to persons over 21.
- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -
Text of Johnson Gun Message
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 24— Following is the text of President Johnson's message to Congress proposing tighter gun controls:
Within the hour, in some city in America, a gun shot will ring out. And someone will fall dead or wounded. Unless we act purposefully to prevent it, reckless and wild gunfire will be heard again—tomorrow, the day after and all the days to follow.
—As it was last Tuesday, when a 71-year-old gas station attendant was shot to death in the course of a $75 armed robbery;
—As it was last Wednesday, in Graceville, Fla., When a mental patient shot a 3year-old boy through the back of the head;
—As it was last Thursday, in Chicago, when a young man was killed and three others injured by shotgun blasts fired by a band of roving teenagers.
These tragedies are imbedded in the grim statistics of death and destruction at gun point. The terrible toll is rising.
The latest report of the Federal Bureau of Investigation documents a shocking increase in crimes where deadly weapons are the instruments of violence.
Figures on Murders
In 1967, there were:
—7,700 murders with guns. In 1966 there were 6,500.
—55,000 aggravated assaults with guns. In 1966 there were 43,000.
—Over 71,000 robberies with guns. In 1966 there were 60,000.
It took this country nearly two centuries to respond to-the danger of guns in criminal and incompetent hands. The first Federal, action came in the early 1930's, when the Congress enacted safeguards controlling the use of sawed-off shotguns and submachine guns to answer the public indignation and fear arising out of organized gang wars in the cities.
But very little was done in the next three decades, while the velocity of speeding bullets exacted their deadly toll across America. Alone among the modern nations of the world, we remained -without the gun control laws that other countries accept as an elementary need and condition of life.
We can see the difference in the last reported comparisons of homicides by gunfire. Out of 15 countries reporting, the United States ranked, worst—with a rate of 2.7 gun murders per 100,000 population. Here are some of the statistics:
—2.7 for the United States
—0.03 in the Netherlands and 0.04 in Japan.
— 2.7 for the United States
— 0.05 in England and Wales.
— 2.7 for the United States
— 0.12 in West Germany and 0.70 in Italy.
— 2.7 for the United States
— 0.52 in Canada and 0.26 in Belgium.
Since I first became President, I have fought for strong gun control-laws.
Now—at long last—we have begun to move. When I signed the Safe Streets Act last week, America took the first major step to control deadly firearms. That measure outlawed the interstate traffic in handguns and prohibited the sale of these small and lethal weapons to minors.
We are now within sight of the second major step— the control of interstate traffic in shotguns, rifles and ammunition, as I requested of the Congress on June 6. I hope the Congress will move with the greatest speed to complete its action on this proposal for protection.
But even before that step is finally completed, we must look to the next advance for the safety of the American people.
With the enactment of these measures, we will have constructed the nation's first foundation upon which the states can build and develop their own gun control laws. Without this bulwark of interstate protection, even the best state laws would be exercises in futility.
To assure the protection of our people, Federal laws need two additional reinforcements:
*A national registration of all firearms, both those already in private hands and those acquired in the future.
*Federal licensing of all possessors of firearms in those states whose laws fail to meet minimum Federal, standards.
Registration and licensing have long been an accepted part of daily life in America. Automobiles, boats — even dogs, and bicycles in many communities—are commonly registered. Our citizens must get licenses to fish, to hunt and to drive. Certainly no less should be required for the possession of lethal weapons that have caused so much horror and heartbreak in this country. Surely the slight inconvenience for the few is minimal, when measured against protection for all.
I propose, first, the national registration of every gun in America.
There are now more firearms than families in America. The estimates range between 50 and 100 million guns in this country. Last year more than 3 million guns were added to private stocks, building; a massive arsenal which arms the murderer and the robber.
Registration will tell us how many guns there are, where they are and in whose hands they are held.
Car registration has been the major factor in solving hit-and-run auto deaths. The new National Crime Information Center, operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has already begun to compile arid computerize data on stolen automobiles; stolen guns, fugitives from justice and other criminal activities.
Now, for the first - time, computer technology has made the national registration of guns practical and workable. The registration of guns can be fed into a computer bank at the National Crime Information Center. Through this system, the owner of a gun anywhere in the country can be identified in a matter of seconds.
Licenses Urged
Second, I propose that every individual in this country be required to obtain a license before he is entrusted with a gun.
Every murder by gunfire is a criminal confrontation in which—by design or through a conspiracy of events—the criminal faces his victim through the telescope crosshairs of a rifle or over the barrel of a pistol. An inflamed moment seizes the criminal's mind, and his finger presses the trigger.
We may never be able to keep that criminal mind from erupting into violence, but we can stay the finger that squeezes the trigger — by keeping the gun out of the murderer's hand.
The surest route to accomplish this is to require every, person who wants a gun to be licensed, first proving that he meets the qualifications.
The initiative for licensing should, of course, rest with the states, for there licensing can most effectively be carried out. Some states have already enacted comprehensive licensing laws which prevent the vicious, the irresponsible and the insane from acquiring firearms.
In New Jersey, for example, which has had a licensing law for only a short period of time, over 1,500 disqualified persons have been denied access to lethal weapons. And states which have licensing requirements have lower homicide rates.
The states are now working, on model gun control laws through a special committee of the National Association of Attorneys General, The National Council of State Governments and the National Governors Conference. I have urged that their work be expeditiously pursued.
To assure uniformity and adequate protection, the law I propose would establish minimum Federal licensing standards. These would prevent firearms from being sold to or possessed by criminals, dope addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and any others whose possession of guns would be harmful to the public health, safety or welfare.
A Plea to States
The Federal licensing law would go into effect only in those states without at least comparable standards, and only after the states have been given an opportunity to act first.
I call upon every Governor and state legislature to move as rapidly as they can to enact forceful laws for the protection, of their people.
Nothing in these proposals will impair the legitimate ownership or use of guns in this country. In other countries which have sensible laws, the hunter and the sportsman thrive. These measures will entail no more inconvenience for the gun owners than dog tags or automobile license plates pose for any citizen.
Nor are they threats to the mystique of manhood or to the heritage of our people. Only the potential murderer's chance to kill and only the potential robber's chance to terrorize are threatened.
The only heritage that is harmed, is the record of violent death and destruction that shames our history.
The proposals in this message are no more and no less than common sense safe guards which any civilized nation must apply for the safety of its people.
The American people have been too long without them. The cost of inaction through the decades affronts our conscience.
History Is Cited
Homes and city streets across the nation which might have rung with gunfire will be spared the tragedy of senseless slaughter. We will never be able to measure this violence that does not erupt. But our history tells us America will be a safer country if we move now—once and forever—to complete the protection so long denied our people.
I urge the Congress, as I have throughout all the days of my Presidency, to act immediately to control , interstate sales of shotguns, rifles and ammunition.
Hearings on this legislation have long since been completed. The legislation has been reported favorably by the House Judiciary Committee and the Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That legislation — providing basic protection against interstate slaughter by firearms—should be brought to a vote without delay.
Once that foundation of interstate protection has been established, the registration and licensing proposals made in this message should be enacted, But these proposals afford no justification for delay in enacting strong and effective controls over interstate traffic of deadly weapons. Indeed, they build upon the foundation of interstate control which is so essential to their effectiveness.
Let us delay no longer in enacting that basic foundation of interstate protection and then let us go on to build —through registration and licensing—the kind of protection so long denied the American citizen.
A lot of people living today don't realize how we went from being pretty much free to within a hair's breadth of losing it all in the 1960s.
The NRA managed to defeat the most outrageous stuff (national registration and national FOIDs), but at the cost of the grievous wound that was the Gun Control Act of 1968; which instituted the present FFL system and drove out of business a lot of people who had dealt in firearms before (barrels of surplus guns in hardware stores), gave us indirect registration in the Form 4473 and choked the gun market into individual states -- interstate sales of firearms were banned for a few years, but we slowly managed to chip away at that, by first restoring the right to buy rifles and shotguns in adjoining states, and then in any state in the Union. Handgun sales still remain choked off.
Likewise, the requirement of GCA 1968 to track every box of ammunition sold in a "bound book" similar to that used for 4473'ed guns went away in stages, first for I believe .22LR, then rifle ammo, and finally in the 1980s for pistol ammunition.
That's John Glenn's true legacy, not the nearly five hours in space he spent in 1962.
The NRA managed to defeat the most outrageous stuff (national registration and national FOIDs), but at the cost of the grievous wound that was the Gun Control Act of 1968; which instituted the present FFL system and drove out of business a lot of people who had dealt in firearms before (barrels of surplus guns in hardware stores), gave us indirect registration in the Form 4473 and choked the gun market into individual states -- interstate sales of firearms were banned for a few years, but we slowly managed to chip away at that, by first restoring the right to buy rifles and shotguns in adjoining states, and then in any state in the Union. Handgun sales still remain choked off.
Likewise, the requirement of GCA 1968 to track every box of ammunition sold in a "bound book" similar to that used for 4473'ed guns went away in stages, first for I believe .22LR, then rifle ammo, and finally in the 1980s for pistol ammunition.
That's John Glenn's true legacy, not the nearly five hours in space he spent in 1962.
I judge a man by the totality of his life.
mtm1974
Member
Wow... A lot of things I did not know about the man and his views!
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