Gourt Home::Gourt :: Gun Control Act of 1968
The Gun Control Act of 1968 (also known as GCA or GCA68, and codified as Chapter 44 of Title 18, United States Code) is a federal law in the United States that broadly regulates the firearms industry and firearms owners.
The GCA was enacted after several years of contentious debate, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. It primarily focuses on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers.
FFL System
The Gun Control Act prohibited the direct mail order of firearms by consumers and mandated that if a person wants to buy a gun from other than a private individual, he or she has to go to a Federally licensed firearms dealer to buy the gun. The Act also bans unlicensed individuals from acquiring handguns outside their State of residence, although long guns (rifles and shotguns) may (under Federal law) be acquired from Federally licensed firearms dealers located in other States, provided this is allowed by both the State of purchase and the State of residence.
Private sales between residents of two different states are also prohibited without going through an FFL.
Private sales between residents of the same state are allowed under federal law.
Private Sale Exception
Current law mandates that a background check be performed if either the seller has a federal firearms license or the buyer is a resident of a different state than the seller. However, two private parties living in the same state may buy and sell firearms without going through an FFL in certain states.A person who does not have a Federal Firearms License may not sell and buy guns from other people for the purpose of making a profit. They must be selling from their own personal collection.
States that do not allow private sales: California, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York. Additionally in Florida, the state constitution was amended to make this a county option. The densely populated counties now require a NICS check at gun shows for private transactions (all FFL transactions require this by federal law), whereas most rural counties do not.
States that require an FFL for handguns only: Connecticut, Michigan, North Carolina, Rhode Island.
Gunsmith Exception
While the Gun Control Act prohibits the direct mail-ordering of firearms, a person can mail their gun via contract carrier (UPS or FedEx usually) to a gunsmith (who always has an FFL) for repairs or modification. After the repair work is done, the gunsmith can ship the weapon directly back to the customer.Marking Requirements
The law also required that all firearms produced by licensed manufactures in the United States and imported into the United States bear a serial number. Defacement or removal of the serial number is a felony offense. The purpose of the serial number is for when a firearm is recovered from a crime scene or during a criminal investigation. A law enforcement agency makes a request to the BATFE to run what is called a "trace" and then the BATFE contacts the manufacturer of the firearm in question. The manufacturer then uses the serial number to determine which gun store or distributor the weapon was sold to. The gun store the firearm is traced to is then called for a copy of the 4473 that matches the firearm in question and then the purchaser on the 4473 is contacted.
Prohibited Persons
The original GCA prohibits firearms purchase and ownership by certain broad categories of individuals thought to pose a threat to public safety. However, this list was in contradiction between the House and the Senate versions of the bill, and led to great confusion. This list was later augmented, modified, and clarified in the Firearms Owners' Protection Act of 1986. The 1986 list is:
- Anyone who has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding 1 year.
- Anyone who is a fugitive from justice.
- Anyone who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.
- Anyone who has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to a mental institution.
- Any alien illegally or unlawfully in the United states or an alien admitted to the United states under a nonimmigrant visa.
- Anyone who has been discharged from the US Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions.
- Anyone who, having been a citizen of the United states, has renounced his or her citizenship.
- Anyone that is subject to a court order that restrains the person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of such intimate partner.
- Anyone who has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. (See the Lautenberg Amendment.)
A person who is under indictment or information for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year cannot lawfully receive a firearm. Such person may continue to lawfully possess firearms obtained prior to the indictment or information.
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 created a national background check system to prevent firearms sales to such "prohibited persons."
Controversy
Various pro-gun organizations have expressed opposition to some or all of the GCA's provisions. Other provisions of the bill, such as those forbidding firearms ownership by convicted criminals and the mentally ill, were not and have not been opposed by the NRA.
In addition, the GCA created what is commonly known as the "sporting purposes" standard for all imported firearms, declaring that they must "be generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes," excluding surplus military firearms.
Perhaps most vociferous in opposition to the GCA are the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership and the Gun Owners Alliance, both of whom conjecture that the GCA appears inspired by the earlier National Weapons Law of Nazi Germany. This claim, disputed by some, is based on work by the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership that claims to demonstrate that the GCA's author, Senator Thomas J. Dodd, (father of current Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut), requested the Legislative Research Service translate his personal copy of the Nazi-era National Weapons Law of Germany, (which he had obtained while serving as a war-crimes prosecutor at Nuremburg in the post war era), and to adapt its language to the American legal system. A side-by-side comparison of the two laws supports the existence of several similarities with the Nazi-era law, which was used to strip opposition groups, dissidents, Jews, and other undesirables from their ability to defend themselves or conduct an effective underground resistance movement within Nazi Germany. The primary similarities stem from key gun control concepts like 'sporting use' and 'prohibited persons', all of which subsequently appeared in the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Further reading
See also
1968 in law | Gun politics | United States federal firearms legislation
"Gun Control Act of 1968"