Timeline of Federal Infringements on the 2nd Amendment

[rambone]

I'm not sure how complete it is. But these are all specifically focused on FEDERAL gun control laws. State laws vary wildly.

Gun Control Laws



1791

The Second Amendment is ratified.
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1934

The National Firearms Act imposes a tax on the sale and transfer of machine guns and short-barrel firearms, including sawed-off shotguns. Passed just after Prohibition's repeal, it follows widespread outrage over gangsters like John Dillinger and Al Capone.
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1938

The Federal Firearms Act requires federal licensing of gun dealers.
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1968

The Gun Control Act, following the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., expands licensing and record-keeping requirements. It prohibits felons and the mentally ill from buying guns and bans the sale of mail-order firearms, including rifles and shotguns.
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1972

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is created to oversee the regulation of gun sales.
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1986

The Firearms Owners Protection Act eases some gun sale restrictions and bars the government from creating a database of gun dealer records. The law, which also authorizes sales of guns between private owners, reflects the growing influence of the National Rifle Association and a strongly pro-gun Reagan administration.
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1993

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, named for the press secretary disabled by the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, requires gun dealers—although not private sellers—to run background checks on purchasers and authorizes the creation of a national database.
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1994

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, passed by a Democratic Congress, bans the sale of new assault weapons for 10 years.
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2003

The Tiahrt Amendment prohibits the disclosure of trace data about guns used in crimes. Following a wave of lawsuits against gun dealers, Congress also protects gun manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits if their guns are used in crimes.
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2004

The assault weapons ban expires under a Republican-controlled Congress.
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2007

After the massacre at Virginia Tech, Congress closes a loophole in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System by requiring states to automate lists of people prohibited from buying firearms, including felons and the mentally ill, and put them in the federal database.​

 

[Tallenn]

To flesh it out a bit:

1939: National Firearms Act declared unconstitutional in a Federal District Court in U.S. vs Miller. Later that same year, overturned by SCOTUS in a non-adversarial sham of a hearing. The government's argument had more holes than block of Swiss cheese, and there was no one to represent the defense, nor was there even a brief filed.

1986: Firearm Owners Protection Act ruined by the last minute Hughes amendment, approved by a voice vote, that allowed the BATF to interpret existing law to mean that no further transfers of full auto weapons manufactured after the law passed would be approved. Along with the Gun Control Act of 1986 banning the importation of full auto weapons for civilian use, this effectively froze the supply of automatic weapons for non-government owners.

 

[Redemption]

1986 In a last minute, unrecorded voice vote, at night, when opposition would not be present.......The cowardly William J. Hughes (D-N.J.) included an amendment to FOPA banning all new civilian machine gun manufacture after May 19, 1986.

Though controversy exists as to the validity of the vote and whether or not it is even constitutional, nothing has ever been done........

EDIT: already posted, me too slow......Oh well.

 

[Tallenn]

That's quite alright. The more it is discussed, the better. You'd be surprised how many strong 2A advocates don't know very much about the sneaky tactics and backroom deals that have gone on in the steady attack on our right to keep and bear arms.

There is an excellent book by John Ross which details the majority of these underhanded attacks quite well, called Unintended Consequences. I highly recommend it for anyone that considers themselves a part of the "gun culture" or cares intensely about the right to keep and bear arms (as well as many other rights which have been systematically attacked over the last 100 years). It is actually a novel, but much of the background is from actual historical events and court rulings.