Here is what I remember from those days.
1962 Thomas J Dodd and Emauel Cellar proposed the first federal law on handguns.
1962; “We don’t want to take away your guns, we ONLY want to register handguns! Rifles and shotguns will not be affected”.
1964: “We only want to register all your guns, not ban them! Only Army surplus guns will be banned.”
1968: “We only want to register your guns, and ban “Saturday Night Specials” and small foreign handguns along with army surplus rifles!” (They got the ban on 5 shot bolt action army surplus rifles and handguns and small foreign pistols)
1970: “We only want to ban Saturday night specials! Large handguns and rifles will not be affected!”
1971: “According to the SCOTUS, Miller Decision, RIFLES are protected under the 2nd Amendment, handguns are not!”
1976: “We only want to ban all handguns! Long guns will not be affected!”
1981: “The NRA is a rifle organization! They should give up their handguns, and they can keep their rifles!”- Lee Grant on GMA
1984: “We must ban “assault Rifles, unsuitable or hunting!”
1989: George Bush bans import of some foreign made “assault rifles”.
1992: Assault rifle ban passed by Clinton.
2000: first calls to ban single shot .50 cal rifles...
2012 calls for MORE bans on semi auto rifles and handguns.
And so it continues.
Thanks - going into the archives for the next comment in an article about “paranoid” gun owners.
Bookmarking your post.
Excellent job of summarizing gun control history in America.