Guns For Sale.....

Back in the 60's and early 70's when I was a kid you could walk in to just about any hardware store, Montgomery Wards, or Sears and look at and buy Rifles and in some cases Pistols. It has come as somewhat of a shock to me that it is really getting pretty hard to find store fronts that sell Pistols or rifles. We have slide down this slippery slope of antigun to a precipitous point. I fear I will see a near total ban in my lifetime. I am not a gun nut and never have been. I've been around them off and on for 55 years. I've owned a few over the years but have lived for years without thinking about or using the ones I owned. I dropped out of the gun scene back in the late 70's or early 80's. My interest was slowly rekindled a few years back from my son inlaws interest. I am really just beginning to grasp the scope of how much has changed. Does anybody else miss the Western Auto with the rack of rifles for sale on the back wall? Something is wrong here for sure. I wonder if most of it doesn't have to do with the ATF laws and fees that have become burdensome and very expensive. I wonder if there isn't some way to lobby for a roll back of some of these laws to make it easier for smaller retailers to be able to sell firearms again. This right and freedom of ours is being slowly deprived of oxygen and is slowly dying away do to a lack of access to the equipment and a place to shoot or hunt. There are somethings that I do agree with. I really don't mind the background check because it does limit access to some exstent for those who shouldn't have access. On the surface I don't think any state or local government should be able to pass and inforce laws that are more restrictive than on the national level. I guess I was just keying off a memory of walking through the sporting goods section of my local Sears store as a kid and looking at the rifles on display or looking through there catalog when you use to be able to order a 308 and they'd ship it to your door. Things were a lot simpler then and maybe a little more innocent.

Hmm...I think if i saw that now i would be in a state of total shock.

I remember the same things gmaske. My first new gun came from Sears Roebuck & Co. It was a Winchester Model 88 in 308. I carried it home on a public transit bus in clear view. No one even fainted or screamed. We are way down the slippery slope. Each time they institute a new "reasonable law" we go a bit farther down. The "Controllers" don't want to settle for reasonable, they want full control which of course means they are the only ones with guns.

:smt1099

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Originally Posted by gmaske

On the surface I don't think any state or local government should be able to pass and inforce laws that are more restrictive than on the national level.

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You're telling me...the town I live in back home was the first in the US to ban handguns all together. I'm not only talking about sales, I'm talking about having them in that town/village all together. So, for citizens like myself to legally have handguns while living in that village, they have to be stored out of that town (ex: safety deposity boxes, etc. in a DIFFERENT TOWN). You can't even drive through my village with a gun in the car even if you live in a different town!!! The biggest BS in the world (I cannot wait to move to Arizona). I live on the border of the town, and two blocks away you can legally have them...ok [/rant off] :smt076:smt076

-Jeff-

Western Auto, Sears, K-mart...All places you could walk in, purchase a
firearm and walk out. No one would get upset.

What we didn't have back then was a bunch of shootings on school and
university grounds.

I am afraid we are loosing our freedoms and with them, our country.

It wasn't a rifle, but in the late '60s I brought home a broadsword on the airplane from vacation. Try that now!:anim_lol:

When I used to walk home from Junior High school, the normal route took me through the local mall, where one of the anchor stores was Montgomery Wards. At least twice a week, I would press my greasy little nose tight against the glass display case full of S&W magnum revolvers. Mostly big 'ol N-frames, they would beckon to me, and I was helpless to resist their call. Finally, one of the older clerks noticed my rapt attention.

"Want to handle one of those, sonny?"

"Would I!"

He showed me how to release the cylinder and check it for ammo, taught me to not spin it or slam it closed, and even let me dry-fire a few shots at a target they had hanging on the wall, just for that purpose. I was in heaven. I don't think the man ever knew what it meant to a kid who would never have been exposed to a handgun in any other way. Maybe he did know; heck, maybe that's the same way he got started. I'd like to think so, anyway.

I popped in as usual on one fine fall day, and was shocked to see the gun counter dark, all the display lights turned off. I drifted aimlessly around the area until I spotted the old clerk, and then he told me the bad news. Someone had distracted the weekend sporting goods manager, and while he was away, a couple of guys broke the doors on the case and cleaned out all of those shiny S&W magnums. Took 'em all, every one (a dozen, maybe?). The store never re-stocked them, stopped carrying handguns altogether, and within a year, no guns or ammo at all. About broke my heart. Had to go and find a REAL gunshop to hang out in after that, so there WAS a silver lining in that cloud after all!

Memories...


Edited to fix pour speling and missin' words. Musta been a rough night... ;)

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Originally Posted by DJ Niner

When I used to walk home from Junior High school, the normal route took me through the local mall, where one of the anchor stores was Montgomery Wards. At least twice a week, I would press my greasy little nose tight against the glass display case full of S&W magnum revolvers. Mostly big 'ol N-frames, they would beckon to me, and I was helpless to resist their call. Finally, one of the older clerks noticed my rapt attention.

"Want to handle one of those, sonny?"

"Would I!"

He showed me how to release the cylinder and check it for ammo, taught me not spin or slam it closed, and even let me dry-fire a few shots at a target they had hanging on the wall, just for that purpose. I was in heaven. I don't think the man ever knew what it meant to a kid who would never have been exposed to a handgun in any other way. Maybe he did know; heck, maybe that's the same way he got started. I'd like to think so, anyway.

I popped in as usual on one fine fall day, and was shocked to see the gun counter dark, all the display lights turned off. I drifted aimlessly around the area until I spotted the old clerk, and then he told me the bad news. Someone had distracted the weekend sporting goods manager, and while he was away, a couple of guys broke the doors on the case and cleaned out all of those shiny S&W magnums. Took 'em all, every one (a dozen, maybe?). The store never re-stocked them, stopped carrying handguns altogether, and within a year, no guns or ammo at all. About broke my heart. Had to go and find a REAL gunshop to hang out in after that, so there WAS a silver lining in that cloud after all!

Memories...

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That is an AWESOME story!

I'm not old ...yet.But I can remember buying my first .22 rifle at the local Coast-to-Coast store(Do they still exist?)all I needed was my parents to be present.

And the days of thumbing through the huge Sears catolog and drooling over the gun section.Ordering a gun was no different than ordering a bicycle.

And then there was the time when ammo was stocked on the shelf for easy access(non-firearm dealers),not locked away behind a counter where you need a spotting scope to see what they have in stock.

I think they need to go to a once a year background check on firearm purchases,(maybe twice a year for handguns) if purchased through the same dealer.
Example: If you purchased a new 12 gauge for duck hunting last month and you went back today to get a new 44 levergun,you should be able to show your id ,pay and walk out the door.

But I doubt that will ever happen...It will probly be more like...you'll have to sign for ammo so the feds can keep track of who's buying what.(could be already happening with easily tracked online purchases.....)

Take California, it has for a long time been one of the more restrictive states. Look at the Roster of Handguns Certified For Sale in California and notice how many come up for re-certification during 2008 (there are a few guns that expire in 2009).

The magazine disconnect law is already in effect and those semi-autos that don't have mag disconnects will fall off the list when they expire (that is most of them, BTW). And the few that are left will almost surely be de-certified after the bullet serialization law goes into effect in 2009.

There are something over 1,300 guns on the approved list right now. If that sounds like alot, it isn't. For instance, there is not one Keltec model approved for sale in California. But anyway, check back at the end of this year, and again at the end of 2009, and see how many there are left on the approved list. That my friends, illustrates the "backdoor" erosion of our rights in spades.

http://certguns.doj.ca.gov/

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Originally Posted by hawcer

I'm not old ...yet.But I can remember buying my first .22 rifle at the local Coast-to-Coast store(Do they still exist?)all I needed was my parents to be present.

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We still have a Coast-To-Coast Hardware store in our semi-local area, but now it is affiliated with the ACE Hardware chain. When I was last inside a few years ago, they had some .22 ammo and that was about it. I should drop in and look around again...

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Originally Posted by Mulehead

It wasn't a rifle, but in the late '60s I brought home a broadsword on the airplane from vacation. Try that now!:anim_lol:

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Were you wearing a turban too?

I can remember cutting out an ad from a magazine and sending it along with $25 and getting delivered to your door a 1911. A Luger cost $35.
Boarding a plane with a CCW.
Yep, Sears and everybody else selling guns like candy.

It was flat out wonderful..

AFS