What changed it all?

[SONYEXEC]

This is not rehtorical but an honest question. Back in 1980 I was 17 yrs old, saved my pennies over the years and finally had a few hundred bucks to treat myself to something I've always wanted - a gov't model 1911 .45! I think the attraction came from watching all those "war" movies with pops and him always talking about what a great gun the 1911 was. He was never into guns himself.

I had gone to gun stores and thought the gun was a bit pricey for me and stopped looking. Then I heard about gun shows, WOW! swap meets for guns. I find out about a show at the anaheim convention center so I gather up my pennies again and off I go. DAMN, row after row of guns, people with back packs selling guns (inventory list attached to the outside of their back packs) it was amazing. Once the glaze vanished from my eyes I'm off to find a deal on a gov't model 1911 .45 and sure enough I do - $300 (a few extra mags) bought me a gov't 1911 in pristine condition. I give the guy $300 he gives me the gun and we're all happy. No transfer paper work no nothing. Mind you I was 17 and didn't know about guns having to be registered/transferred, I was really just happy to have finally bought the gun of my dreams (which i still have BTW). I saw sales conducted in the isles, in the parking lot, the snackbar lines and it was all no big deal.

I dropped out of the gun scene between the years 1989-2000 only slightly following the goings on via headline "gun" news stories (assault weapon ban, mag capacity etc). Fast forward to 2002 when I start buying guns again [and here's my main question] and everyone is very anal about registering/transferring etc. I mean you have always had to legally transfer handguns I know this (just like selling a car) but back in the 80's anyway nobody really cared or thought about it, private sales were akin to selling someone a pair of sunglasses now-a-days heaven forbid. I remember buying a walther PPK by handing over $350 cash to a guy at a gun range (now insight in artesia) and the only paper work was a receipt signed by both of us and a copy of the ad he had posted @ the range.

I get it, i get it, the paperwork was always the way and it is the right & legal way to do this but outside of buying a gun from a guy parked in an alley the "paperwork" part of a gun purchase is now first and foremost in the transaction process when before it was an after thought.

Lately I have attended gun shows in Vegas & in AZ and they're still pretty much the way they used to be here (in So Calif) back in the 80's anyway. A lot of cash & carry deals still happen there and about the only sellers asking you to fill out paper work are those that own gun stores.

SO WHAT CHANGED? Caveat, this isn't a question bashing the paper-work required to purchase a gun BUT a legit question as to what changed in the gun world to make cash & carry gun deals an evil thing. The internet?

BTW, I did register that .45 I bought in 1980 2 years later by taking to my local LA CO sheriff's office. All my cash & carry purchased guns from the 80's were, at one point or another, registered to me.

Awaiting your replies.

THX

[sammy]

Inflation my friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afWqKcqntfs

This video is a must see.

[mstlaurent]

The law changed. Back in those days there were no state laws regulating the sale of firearms, only Federal laws. So the only time you needed to fill out paperwork was if you purchased from an FFL, private party transfers were cash and carry. Then sometime in the 90's California passed a law requiring all transfers to take place through an FFL, even if they are private party.

My dad used to buy whole collections of guns from estates and what not, I remember going to houses with him and practically shoveling guns and ammo into the back of the truck. All we needed was cash and a handshake. Times change.

[big red]

you can thank the Brady Campaign (Brady gang), some liberal politicians who used the Stockton School incident, and a weak kneed public. The government saw a way to track firearms and get paid for it. It was about extending government control over the second amendment and denying you the right of choice. The government fears nothing more than an armed public who might rise up. And it is even scarier for the government when it can't precisely determine where every gun is so they can take them. In a democracy to have freedom you have to risk giving that freedom to everyone else and hope that they will act as sensibly as you would. That that goes for guns as well. It is why the Second Amendment was written as our insurance policy that someday our government would not turn into a dictatorship run by Congress and the president. I refer you to Nazi Germany and other countries where people gave up their right to bear arms and had no second amendment and look what happened to them when the genocide began. The Constitution and the Amendments are not worth the paper they are written on if people will not defend them against their enemies both from without and WITHIN. You are seeing changes that do not bode well for this country or our freedoms. People have grown lazy and taken their rights for granted. Our forefathers fought for those documents and the words written on them and we are giving away what they died for. The changes in gun shows and laws in this state are just the beginning. We are well on our way back to slavery.