Firearms Culture and Political Identity in the United States: The NRA's "American Rifleman," "The Gun Report," Large Archive Spanning 1941-2000s

NRA Firearms Culture

Periodical

Expansive American firearms periodical archive, 1941 to circa 2003, comprising 33 issues that document the changing politics of gun ownership from wartime marksmanship and national preparedness through the federal regulatory changes of 1968 and organized California gun rights advocacy. The 1941 and 1942 issues appeared as civilian rifle instruction, police training, shooting clubs, and established marksmanship programs were drawn into the broader mobilization preceding and following United States entry into the Second World War. The 1969 and 1973 issues of The American Rifleman record the growing place of firearms legislation within the NRA’s principal magazine, with federal and state gun bills, registration, handgun restrictions, municipal ordinances, elections, and lobbying published beside hunting, competition, product testing, and technical instruction. Fourteen issues of the California Rifle and Pistol Association’s The Firing Line extend the chronology into the early 2000s, when the publication addressed gun owners as voters, donors, petitioners, and participants in legislative and electoral campaigns.

American Firearms Periodical Archive. United States, 1941 to circa 2003. Archive of 33 issues comprising five issues of The Gun Report from 1941 and 1942; two issues of The American Rifleman from 1941; twelve issues of The American Rifleman, divided between six issues from 1969 and six issues from July through December 1973; and fourteen issues of The Firing Line from circa 2002 to 2003. The five issues of The Gun Report, Volumes II and III, numbers 5, 6, 2, 4, and 3, contain approximately 4 to 10 pages each. The January and February 1941 issues of The American Rifleman contain approximately 60 pages each. The 1969 issues are dated January, February, March, July, August, and September; the 1973 run extends consecutively from July through December. Each later issue contains approximately 100 pages. The fourteen issues of The Firing Line contain approximately 20 pages each and are stapled and hole punched. The 1941 issues date from the period when the NRA directed its existing network of clubs, ranges, instructors, and competitive shooters toward national preparedness, including firearms training for state guards, law enforcement personnel, and men approaching military service. The 1969 issues followed the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy and the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, showing The American Rifleman giving increased attention to registration proposals, interstate transfers, municipal restrictions, elections, and federal enforcement. By 1973, legislative action had become a recurring editorial subject, two years before the NRA established the Institute for Legislative Action.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 expanded federal control over interstate firearm transfers, importation, licensed dealers, and possession by specified prohibited categories. The 1969 issues register the law’s immediate political consequences. January includes “Effect Of Gun Issue Seen In Vote Results,” “Rules Eased At Hearing On New Gun Law,” and “Municipal Groups Would Register Guns, Owners”; August includes “U.S. Funds For A Lobby, None For DCM Shooters?,” “New Threat Of Gun Registration Raised,” and “Sportsmen And Gun Laws”; and September carries a special report on proposed handgun restrictions and articles addressing registration and enforcement of the new federal law. The 1973 run continues this coverage through “The Other Side Of Gun Control,” “NRA To Step Up Legislative Action,” and “New Moves By Freeman To Kill GCA 68,” documenting the NRA’s developing legislative program before the establishment of its dedicated lobbying division in 1975. In the early 2000s, The Firing Line foregrounded elections, pending legislation, registration, taxation, and direct political participation. Headlines including “Governor Gray Davis Recall Effort Is Underway And You Can Participate” and “Gray Davis Gunning for Guns and Money” show the California Rifle and Pistol Association mobilizing members after Senate Bill 23 established additional assault weapon classifications based on specified characteristics and required owners of newly classified firearms to register them during 2000. Many issues of The Firing Line are hole punched; occasional mailing labels and ownership notations; light toning, edge wear, creasing, and handling wear. Overall very good condition. A record spanning more than six decades of how wartime preparedness, federal regulation after 1968, and California electoral politics changed the subjects, language, and institutional purpose of American firearms periodicals.

Item #23711

Price: $480.00