#TBT: LBJ's bill to disarm the 'criminal, careless, and insane' in U.S.

(PARIS, France) In a rarely discussed part of his six years as president, Texas-born Lyndon Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. Pres. Johnson declared that "civilized nations" would protect its citizens from gun violence.?

?This was in response to the assassinations of JFK (President John F. Kennedy), Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy—those three,? said an author and journalist who specializes in gun rights and gun control, Frank Smyth. See @SmythFrank at bottom. ?(The Act) outlawed interstate sale of long rifles, like the one that was tied to the assassination of JFK. It also restricted sales of guns to minors,? continued Mr. Smyth in an interview on DemocracyNow June 1, 2022.?

On the same day, another mass shooting in the U.S. left four victims dead, and the shooter, as the fifth death, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In Uvalde and Santa Fe, Texas; Buffalo, NY; Oxford, Michigan; Charleston, South Carolina; and Columbine, Colorado, teenagers with guns have committed mass murders. President Johnson addressed minors as shooters in his Oct. 22, 1968 comments before signing H.R. 17735 to reduce?what he called ?reckless violence of crime at gun point.?

Read excerpts of?the transcript from The American Presidency Project of U.C. Santa Barbara. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-upon-signing-the-gun-control-act-1968

LBJ: Today we begin to disarm the criminal and the careless and the insane. All of our people who are deeply concerned in this country about law and order should hail this day.

The Government can help protect its citizens against the random and the reckless violence of crime at gun point. We have come here to the Cabinet Room today to sign the most comprehensive gun control law ever signed in this Nation's history.

(Smith and Wesson through the years. The company produced 1.9 million guns in 2020, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.)

LBJ: Some of you may be interested in knowing, really, what this [1968] bill does:?

--It stops murder by mail order. It bars the interstate sale of all guns and the bullets that load them.

--It stops the sale of lethal weapons to those too young to bear their terrible responsibility.

But this bill--as big as this bill is--still falls short [ …] I asked for the national registration of all guns and the licensing of those who carry those guns. For the fact of life is that there are over 160 million guns in this country--more firearms than families.^?- LBJ

^Those are 1968 figures. The U.S. civilian population of 331 million people (2020 Census) owned 393 million guns in 2018. The firearms count comes from the Small Arms Survey of Geneva, Switzerland. Coming soon in this space: Which states earn the most taxes from gun sales? Prepare to be surprised.

LBJ: If guns are to be kept out of the hands of the criminal, out of the hands of the insane, and out of the hands of the irresponsible, then we just must have licensing. If the criminal with a gun is to be tracked down quickly, then we must have registration in this country.

The voices that blocked these safeguards were not the voices of an aroused nation. They were the voices of a powerful lobby, a gun lobby, that has prevailed for the moment in an election year.?

But the key to effective crime control remains, in my judgment, effective gun control […]

We must continue to work for the day when Americans can get the full protection that every American citizen is entitled to and deserves—the kind of protection that most civilized nations have long ago adopted.?

We have been through a great deal of anguish these last few months (assassinations on April 4, 1968 and June 6, 1968) and these last few years—(Nov. 22, 1963, the assassination of sitting President Kennedy) too much anguish to forget so quickly.?

So now we must complete the task which this long needed legislation begins. @LBJFoundation

@SmythFrank. His 2020 book, The NRA: The Authorized History, can be found on Goodreads and other sites.

#tbt #tbthursday #gunviolence #guncontrol #guncontrolnow #LBJ

#presidentjohnson #presidentbiden #vicepresident @kamalaHarris #civilrightsbaby #civilrightsmovement #safeschools #politicalCourage

#dallastexas #uvalde #daytonohio #buffaloshooting

Author Nita Wiggins teaches university journalism and trains executives in creating and delivering their messaging. Her memoir is called Civil Rights Baby: My Story of Race, Sports, and Breaking Barriers in American Journalism. Available at B&N, Walmart, online globally, and in eBook format. More at www.nitawiggins.com.