"I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense. But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.”
-Ronald Reagan
The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) had been written so ambiguously restrictive that federal enforcement and judiciary abuses ran rampant. With the rising cost of sugar, moonshiners were becoming less prolific and much less lucrative in the resulting convictions. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) at this time realized that their strategy needed changing. ATF agents were thoroughly organized chasing down illicit distillation and transportation of alcohol, however this new climate meant enforcing the GCA with more fervor. The agency response was a series of heavily publicized projects to demonstrate a potential for firearms operations. Agents and supervisors were implicitly or explicitly assigned quotas and older agents were increasingly replaced with younger, more zealous operatives. The scant number of agents in the relatively new bureau finding themselves amongst considerably more armed and dangerous criminals, underwent exploitation of the vagaries contained in the GCA. The absence of proving criminal intent pertaining to the sale of firearms brought about the unjust conviction of citizens and confiscation of firearms, such persons "thought to be dealing in firearms." Regular collectors and hobbyist owners had their firearms confiscated and became felons without any true malicious intent, simply by selling their firearms. Many courts had held that even if a gun owner was found not guilty, the state could still confiscate their guns or revoke their FFL licenses. Also, FFL's inventory and records could be reviewed at any time as often as desired. Even having been pardoned or their charges expunged, felons were still forbidden their right to bear arms. Look at the pretentiousness of congress debating the NFA. At one 1933 hearing, for instance, a senate subcommittee heard - with no recorded skepticism - calls for a ban on felons riding in automobiles, universal fingerprinting of all citizens, mandatory "papers" for interstate travel, and enactment of national vagrancy laws authorizing warrantless search and arrest of anyone "reputed to habitually violate" the laws. The GCA being so nonspecific and nebulous in context had thoroughly been exploited. Zealous and pretentious anti-gun rhetoric permeates all branches of government.
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