American Firearms and the NRA Before and After the Gun Control Act of 1968: Archive of 35 Periodical Issues, 1941–Early 2000s

NRA The Gun Report

Periodical

Expansive American firearms periodical archive, 1940 to the early 2000s, comprising 35 issues that document the changing culture and politics of gun ownership from collecting and technical study through wartime marksmanship, post-1968 legislative debate, and organized California gun-rights advocacy. The archive includes World War II-era articles connecting civilian marksmanship to military preparedness, national defense, foreign armies, Soviet snipers, police training, and the mobilization of American shooters before and after the United States entered the war. The 1969 and 1973 issues document the NRA’s response to the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the growing place of firearms legislation within its pages, with articles on federal and state gun bills, handgun restrictions, transportation laws, registration, electoral campaigns, and the political organization of gun owners. The 1969 and 1973 issues broaden this material through hunting, collecting, product testing, and competitive shooting while giving increasing attention to pending gun bills, firearm transportation, handgun restrictions, state legislation, foreign gun laws, and the political organization of gun owners in the years following the Gun Control Act of 1968.

American Firearms Periodical Archive, 1940–2003. Thirty-five issues comprising six issues of "The Gun Report" from 1940–1942; two issues of "The American Rifleman" from 1941; twelve issues of "The American Rifleman," divided between six issues from 1969 and six from 1973; and fifteen issues of "The Firing Line" from the early 2000s. The six issues of The Gun Report, Volumes I–III, contain approximately 7–12 pages each; the two wartime issues of The American Rifleman contain approximately 60 pages each; the 1969 and 1973 issues contain approximately 110 pages each; and the issues of The Firing Line contain approximately 23 pages each. Published across more than sixty years, the archive records the movement of American firearms publishing through several distinct constituencies and policy environments. The Gun Report documents a prewar firearms culture centered on collecting, technical history, and the study of American military arms at a moment when civilian interest in weapons was increasingly tied to national defense. The 1941 issues of The American Rifleman show that connection becoming explicit, addressing NRA members, competitive shooters, hunters, police, and civilians as potential participants in wartime preparedness. Articles on foreign armies, military marksmanship, police training, and civilian rifle instruction appeared as the NRA placed its instructors, ranges, and affiliated clubs at the disposal of state governments and encouraged members to train state guards, law enforcement officers, and men approaching military service.

The 1969 issues appeared directly after the Gun Control Act of 1968 expanded federal regulation of interstate firearms commerce, importation, dealer licensing, and possession by prohibited persons. Hunting, competition, collecting, and technical articles still dominate, but titles concerning pending gun bills, state legislation, transportation restrictions, and foreign gun laws show readers being addressed increasingly as regulated owners and potential political constituents. The 1973 issues continue this change through articles such as “Communism Versus Gun Ownership,” “Gun Foes Lose Out at Polls,” and “Revival of Handgun Measure Seen.” They predate the NRA’s establishment of the Institute for Legislative Action in 1975 and document the political arguments already developing within its older sporting and technical magazine before lobbying became a separate institutional function.
The fifteen issues of the California Rifle and Pistol Association’s Firing Line represent the fully developed advocacy phase. Produced after California’s SB 23 expanded the state’s assault-weapon definition and provided a registration period for newly classified firearms, the newspapers address members as voters, donors, litigants, and participants in legislative campaigns rather than principally as sportsmen. Covers and headlines concerning assault-weapon restrictions, gun registration, proposed legislation, the recall of Governor Gray Davis, and “criminalizing” gun owners show a state association using its publication to coordinate political opposition and electoral action. Together, the issues trace a changing readership from specialist collectors and marksmen, through federally regulated firearm owners, to an organized constituency mobilized around legislation, constitutional rights, and California elections. Many issues of The Firing Line are hole-punched. One wartime issue of The American Rifleman has its front cover detached; otherwise with varying toning, edge wear, creasing, and handling wear. Overall good condition.

Item #23705

Price: $550.00