Expert: Dan Haynes - 11/5/2010

Question
QUESTION: When did the law regarding crime change, As in the 1800's when you were released from Prison you were given a Gun a Horse & $50.00. When in history did that change to holding a crime you paid for over your head & Taking away your Rights for Life?? I have not been able to track it down. Thanks,Ernie

ANSWER: Ernie,

Thanks for asking. I think most gun owners would have been happier in the 1800's. Here is a link that describes the gun control history in America. http://usgovinfo.about.com/blguntime.htm

Best regards,

Dan



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dan,What about the Dick Act of 1902? Here is a link a friend told me about.     http://www.knowthelies.com/?q=node/3949

Answer
Ernie,

The wild west of the 1800's was a whole different world. Read the below that I got from:

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56047

Early Americans were gun owners. Private firearm ownership was widespread from the coasts to the frontier, in both the North and the South.

Our ancestors not only knew the value of gun rights, they actually practiced those rights. Many early Americans provided for their family through their skill with a firearm, and many more Americans had a gun hanging over the hearth or in the bedroom to protect the house and the children against wild animals or criminals. These firearms were also seen as an insurance policy against American Indians, the British or French, and even against our own central government.

This honored tradition went completely unchallenged until the 1900s. Then New York passed the Sullivan Act in 1911, one of the first gun control laws. This law required that firearms small enough to be concealed on a person be registered. This state law became a test measure for future gun control laws.

Opponents of the Second Amendment started to mobilize at the federal level in the 1930s. It came during the New Deal, when the federal government was growing rapidly. Two laws enacted during this period, the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Federal Firearms Act of 1938, established the first federal gun controls. While most of these regulations were uncontroversial by current standards (such as licensing gun dealers and regulating possession of machine guns), they introduced the concept of national regulation of firearms.

Since that time more and more gun control laws have been implemented.
Federal Firearm laws are enforced by the ATF. They outline who cannot own firearms.  

Best regards,

Dan