Gun owners have been saddled with the GCA of 1968, now, for forty five years. Soon, the GCA of 1968 will be getting those annoying little envelopes from the AARP. Pitiably it probably will not ever retire. Thank you, Lyndon Johnson, you criminal son of a bitch. I hope that you and Walter Cronkite are having fun in Cocytus.

Pascal wonders last night why more gun nuts aren’t up in arms because of the “Firearm owners” lists the papers are publishing, and after some considerable wranglinbg, i finally managed to get him to sit still and explain it to him.

First of all, the “List” is utterly meaningless. In whatever district you choose to publish such a list, they can only consist of either people who have filled out a form 4473, or people who have gotten (as in illinois) the “Foid” type card.
See, here’s the thing.

I have filled out several 4473’s in my life. The number of firearms I own and the number of 4473’s I have filled out does not approach parity, and hasn’t all my life. Like my father before him, I have acquired firearms by inheritance, and many of those firearms are old enough that they have no serial number whatsoever. All of them, on the other hand, are fully functional- I won’t own anything I can’t shoot.

This is true of the entire nation. While firearms get lost and fall apart by attrition, it is still very common for firearms from ages past to work properly. I have shot, with modern ammunition, a Model 94 WInchester made before my grandfather was born, and not only did it work, but it worked better than my 1966 vintage model 94 does. Of just this one manufacturer, and just this one firearm, were made over 3 million units prior to 1968.

Winchester was also by no means the largest manufacturer of firearms nor the most prolific. Mossberg has made nine million model 500’s since 1961.

So the “Lists” being published are in no means an accurate representation of the actual location of firearms, and this is just by “Normal” methods of acquiring firearms. SO a powerful lot of the firearms community is not up in arms over it specifically for that reason, and that is really only the minor reason.

The major reason is it is a decoy, a sort of a potemkin village to draw the attention of the gun culture, so the Agency of Lies can use that reaction to further their cause.

The gun culture has deliberately not overtly and vocally reacted to this stupidity. We have all been to this rodeo before. We know the moment someone speaks up, the media says “SEE! THEY ALL WANT YOUR CHILDREN DEAD!!!” So we keep our mouth shut, and refuse to give them ammunition.

In the meantime, the gun culture has done some very important things. This is one of them. We have had a good record of getting people to understand just how important our rights are. We have gotten the country by their hearts and minds, and balls. Witness this. Partner and I did the gunstore run yesterday, and were as always gratified to see that Liberalism, the greatest firearm salesman on the planet, with it’s partner President Wingnuthead, had once again driven everyone to a buying frenzy. I think it’s awesome. It’s hard to find an AR or AK anywhere in the country at a reasonable price; those that are there are priced so high that I’m thinking about selling MINE at the next gunshow I attend.

No, not really.

Anyway, those who have them are seling AR magazines for $40 and up where they were $12 a month ago. ARs that were $800 a month ago flew off the shelves at $1500. And ammo is unavailable, unless you know someone. (Thankfully, I know someone)

Gunnies have been playing this game for a very long time. We would like for GCA 1968 to go away forever, but we’re making excellent progress a bit at a time, like we always have.