Time Magazine The Gun In America
courtesy time.com

“When we were all colonies, there were laws in the 1600s making it illegal to discharge a weapon near a road, near buildings, populated areas or on Sundays, and that barred discharge of a gun during social occasions. In New Jersey there was a law that said you weren’t allowed to discharge a weapon when you were drunk and the two exceptions were at weddings and funerals. In the old ‘Wild West,’ they took people’s guns away when they were in a populated area, only to be retrieved when they left. That exemplifies how laws were much tougher 150 years ago than in the last 30 years.” – Olivia B. Waxman in TIME magazine, How the Gun Control Act of 1968 Changed America’s Approach to Firearms

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

65 COMMENTS

  1. Olivia should never own a gun, because her ignorance of today’s gun laws is almost certainly going to land her in prison.

    Also, is that a 4 chamber revolver?!?

    • ‘It banned interstate shipments of firearms and ammun ition to private individuals…’

      Is this simply untrue or did the ban of interstate shipping amm unition to private individuals get repealed?

      • What would lead one to think that the Marxist’s at Time magazine would have a truthful,fact based article ever make print.

        • Ordinance Number Nine in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881, forbid firearms within the city limits of Tombstone, Arizona. Guess where the “O.K. Corral” was…

      • My understanding is that one of the positive parts for gun owners in the 1986 Firearms Owners Protection Act, was the repeal of prohibition of interstate sales of ammunition.

        • The 1968 GCA did ban bulk ammo purchases by mail. The `86 FOPA did change the law. In 1968 we had to check ID and write down every ammo sales just like it was a firearm.
          Most of the old laws cited are still the law. It is a crime to be drunk or in some states, even with any blood alcohol.
          You can’t legally shoot street lights or stop signs. In the “Old West” the “no gun laws were not enforced against the store keeper or doctor. The laws were enforced against transients and cowboys.
          Until 2010 the U.S. Bill of Rights did not bind the States. The states passed many laws that were only enforced against blacks, Irish or Italians. The State Supreme Court interpreted the State bill of rights any way the mayor and governor wanted.
          To give a remedial history lesson, the Congress had full authority over the militia in U.S. Constitution, Article One, Section Eight.
          Patrick Henry objected as did other ratifiers because the security of a free state was not protected by a militia that was in control of a potential tyrant.
          The Second Amendment was written to maintain the militarily useful arms as a check on future tytants and so te people could form a militia that was not controlled by the Congress or President. That’s why it says “security of a free state.”
          So read this…
          A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state? The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

    • I think the artist wasn’t familiar with guns. But the fluting that should be at 12 and 6 is hidden by the barrel and frame, if I’m being charitable…

      • 3 and 9 o’clock on a 6 shooter.

        Maybe it’s one of those NAA mini-revolvers being held by someone with very tiny hands?

        • Yep, you’re right.

          I need to get my revolvers out more. :-/ Been focusing on the rifles of late.

    • yeah, that depiction is comical…but par for the course for the anti-gun crowd…they never do their homework…just shoot off their mouths…

  2. And we rebelled to get free of England, in the “Wild West” you weren’t covered by the Constitution unless you were in a state (or perhaps territory), and slavery was also legal in large parts of the country.

    Plus, many of the things she lists as illegal still are today, depending on local laws.

    So, what’s her point again? Oh yeah, guns are bad.

      • Women who owned land voted in this country up to about 1813. Even after that they could open a business, get a loan, go to college. Free Blacks were voting in many northern states. For them going to college was impossible. Getting a loan was difficult. But many did start a business.

      • Blacks could not go to school. Everybody should read the entire Dred Scott case, not just a summary.

    • Pretty sure it’s illegal there to get drunk and fire a gun off even if it’s at a wedding or funeral.

      • No shit? Damn, you can learn extraneous shit just about anywhere! So all the original 13 were named prior to 1700. I grew up in VA, probably should know that. Thanx!

    • Not to mention how before and after New Jersey firearms helped to develop the country, to feed and protect citizens in unsettled areas where there really was no established law enforcement. The equalizer saved lives and just as today, mankind then (the lawless fringe) was just as much of an opportunistic predator. I suspect the author lives in a gated community or residential tower far removed from the realities of the street.

  5. Yeah. Back when all coloreds weren’t allowed to own firearms. The true Democratic Party coming out right there.

  6. I suggest that Mr. Spitzer or Ms. Waxman take a loaded firearm to the end of their driveway or front steps, fire it at least once, and see if those laws he cites from the 1600s don’t apply any more.*

    *Not valid in urban sh!tholes, rural areas, or in Philadelphia on New Year’s Eve.

    • New Year’s Eve, you can hear gunfire from student apartments across from our subdivision. Been that way since we moved here 25 years ago.
      Our 2 Golden’s are used to it so no panic at Fireworks or firing off of rounds!
      In those years we’ve had a number of Golden Retrievers. You can almost see them rolling their eyes and thinking “idiots”
      We just keep the dogs inside and we pop open a bottle of Champagne to celebrate a new year.

  8. The stupid is strong with Olivia B. Waxman.
    You will be hard pressed today to find a city or village that does not have a blanket prohibition on discharging firearms within its corporate limits.

    There was a time when TIME was relevant. Today, not so much.

    • If you actually read the laws in your state, county and city you will find that :
      Drive by shootings are illegal, shooting at any building or occupied dwelling is a felony,
      there are usually exceptions for police, railroad detectives to laws against discharging a firearm in a city. When my friend was a KS Stated Senator rewriting the state laws, I suggested that since he was writing the concealed carry law in 2005/06 that an exception for private citizens lawfully in compliance with the self-defense laws [ use of force ]? He said that NO court would file criminal charges against a lawful discharge to save a life.
      I still think he put too much trust in government. He is a county judge now.

  10. Actually Newark New Jersey was called Piersonville after Abraham Pierson moved there in the 1600’s from Connecticut!
    Gee if we fired guns at a wedding it would be like the restart of the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, besides that most wedding guests were so sloshed they couldn’t lift a rifle!
    this person wants to return too the supposed laws of 150 years ago , so they want Slavery, etc {good Democrat}

  11. Permits for carry 150 years ago? To purchase?
    Background checks 150 years ago?
    Magazine restrictions 150 years ago? (Yes, there were magazines. The Gatling had one.)
    Gun lock restrictions, unloaded when transporting?

    The rules are different today and it would take a comprehensive evaluation to determine if “they were tougher 150 years ago.” That said, signs point to “no.” 150 years ago people could own pretty much all of the real military weaponry of the time. Today?

    In any case, it’s fun (and annoying) to watch history in the making. Note how the author makes the political activism of the NRA appear from nowhere. It was magic! Radicals popped from nowhere with no reason and became political. The author does not mention the context of those years, the discussion of outright bans in DC, Massachusetts, and California. No, the NRA just decided to become political with no backdrop.

    Fake history being created before your very eyes.

      • A magazine is a warehouse or storage room where ammunition is stored. Battleships have magazines. When a naval vessel goes into battle the magazines can be flooded if there is a fire.
        The Battleship Arizona had a fairly small armor piercing bomb hit the powder magazine and the million pounds of canon gun powder detonated and that sank the ship. If the bomb had struck a few feet differently, the Captain would have ordered the magazines flooded.
        Magazines in rifles did not appear until about the time of the Civil War with the Spencer, Sharps and some other arms that used fixed metallic cartridges. From 1860 to about 1940 most rifles used internal magazines.
        Some arms use clips, just a strip of metal that held 5 to 10 cartridges which were pushed into te magazine. See the Gary Cooper movie, Sargent York to see how the clip was used to reload the 1903 Springfield Rifle.

  12. 150 years ago? Women couldn’t vote. They were basically live stock for the men folk.

    Is this woman wanting us to turn back the clock 150 years? A dem for sure, she is.

        • And this is the fundamental error people always make when they argue for totalitarian ideologies: (1) they assume that someone like them will be running the system, and (2) they assume they are good and uncorruptable.

          But history has shown that the people who end up actually running these systems are always the Stalins and Hitlers.

  13. She wants gun laws back 150 years ago? That would not be a bad idea. No ATF, NFA, paperwork, and taxes.

  14. boy where did she get her information?? some western towns sherrifs did make cowboys turn their guns in when they came to town drinking,common sense dictates you do not shoot guns in town on streets with people there!!! but there was no real gun laws,you could own anything you wanted to own! Sears catalog allowed mail order of anything you wanted 125 years ago,revolvers,rifles,shotguns ,even cannons! thing was just about everyone was armed in those days,and if you tried to kill someone and survived!!!! you were taken out after your trial and hanged . Bank robbers in the old west lived a really hard life,thats the reason they went in gangs! getting into town was hard as they did not know you,questioned you,hard to hide out and live it up in those days! ride into town and someone knew who you were! rob the bank and come out to 50 guns aimed at you,if you could just ask one of jesse james gang after they went to that town and bank in Mi. got shoot to hell by the townspeople! Cole younger shot 16 times but lived!! our country has become like the old west! except there are way more bad guys nowadays! if those people in the old west had not been armed,the bad guys would have taken over,and nowadays they arebecause not enough good guys are armed.

    • The Dalton Boys got ventilated real good at Coffeeville KS during a dual bank robbery attempt. The men of the town armed themselves and the Dalton Gang went down in a hail of lead, including one who survived his many wounds only because the town doctor was also the town drunk and they assumed the last Dalton breathing would soon succumb.

      After being paroled, Emmett Dalton published his account of the gang, lived well, and died well into the 20th Century.

  15. I honestly think The Left has a really hard time distinguishing between “illegal” and “able to happen”

    SMH

  18. 150 years ago. Journalism had a higher standard. It was understood what truth and honesty meant in terms of a free press. You can’t really blame these young people with skulls full of mush. They are simple a failure of poor parenting,Unethical education and hero worshiping of elites who are willing to fabricate fake news to fit an agenda. Possible the worst part of the equation is the fact this people are willing to capitulate in order to further their so called careers.

    • 150 yrs ago was a different age..how about relating to the changes that have occurred in our lifetime…

  20. Gun laws were tougher back when drunks could discharge weapons at weddings and funerals.

    “they took people’s guns away when they were in a populated area, only to be retrieved when they left”. As opposed to know where they do not even let you have them in populated areas like SF, NY, Chicago, etc.

    Uh ,OK.

  21. People who know nothing about guns or gun laws shouldn’t quote laws that they know nothing about.

  22. SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED! No compromise, no retreat, no surrender. Pappa is fed up. Come mid-terms, Pappa gonna spank, Pappa gonna spank hard. -30-

  23. Um…. I’m allowed to fire a gun drunk, near a road, next to someone’s home in a town? Wheeeeel, * pops open a bottle of wine and grabs my AR-15 * yewewhaw.

  25. I’m sure Al Gore’s father, Albert Gore senior senator from Tennessee was very grateful that black people in the North could no longer mail Firearms to their relatives in Southern States after 1968.

  27. The idiot with an agenda forgot that at the same time we had legal slavery with all its misery, prevented women from voting, worked kids in dangerous factories and had many other rather barbaric laws that eliminated or reduced our civil rights. America has improved as we matured as a country, unfortunately the improvement is sometimes 2 forward and 1 step back….

  29. Might I point out that laws are for the lawabiding. Those persons already willing to slaughter innocents will find those other small rules of little consequrnce. Are not there laws in place prohibiting the killing of other humans ?

  30. The towns where guns were collected were cow towns and it was only outsiders. Usually drovers coming in from cattle drives. This was to prevent drunken cowboys from discharging firearms in an unsafe manner while celebrating the end of a long hard cattle drive. The reason guns were rarely seen in frontier towns and cities is most gun carriers in settled areas used shoulder holsters, had reinforced trouser or coat pockets and carried their guns concealed. Once one crossed the MIssissippi River into the west law officers were few and far between so it was incumbent upon the individual to be able to defend themselves.

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