An Ad from when America was a free country

[VMI77]

Available by mail order, no background check, $225.

[Kadelic]

Nice find! By any chance do you have a link or any reference to when that ad ran?

[VMI77]

Nice find! By any chance do you have a link or any reference to when that ad ran?

The original site doesn't say, but I ran a reverse image search and found this site ---but all it says is the ad is pre-1934.

http://www.firearmstruth.com/2010/vintage-ad-campaign

This site has a pretty good article about guns in once free America: http://www.guns.com/2013/04/06/a-conver ... s-in-2063/

The article starts off in a fictional future....scroll down to Historical Comparison and Perspective.

Dialing it further back, in 1913 you could write Colt and have them send you a fully automatic belt fed M1895 machine gun to your farm, no tax stamps, CLEO signatures, or fingerprints required. Heck you could even buy surplus (and fully working) field artillery pieces and several companies, such as Bannerman’s of New York, would box it up and send it right out. Suppressors, short-barreled rifles, cane guns, and pen guns were not regulated, legal, cash and carry items. This all came to a halt with the National Firearms Act of 1934, which is constantly adjusted, amended, and fiddled with.

[rotor]

I wonder what a Thompson would have cost in those days. Of course lot's of laws have changed including the narcotic laws. Heroin content of many of those elixers sold by traveling salesman was fairly high and people that bought it didn't know what was in it. I would have wanted to buy a "tommy-gun" if I were there at that time ( and had the money). Why? Because.

[gthaustex]

Nice. I love seeing old ads from various manufacturers or stores hawking their wares. Mail order guns from Sears, delivered to your door....

[baldeagle]

I still own a Western Auto bolt action 22 that I bought from Western Auto when I was a youngster. I don't recall how old I was, but back in those days you could walk into a store and purchase a firearm and walk out, no questions asked. It was like buying a washer or a sofa.

[RoyGBiv]

Neato thread.!

1929, $200, includes compensator.

[VMI77]

I wonder what a Thompson would have cost in those days. Of course lot's of laws have changed including the narcotic laws. Heroin content of many of those elixers sold by traveling salesman was fairly high and people that bought it didn't know what was in it. I would have wanted to buy a "tommy-gun" if I were there at that time ( and had the money). Why? Because.

Reminds me that things like suppressors are cheap in places like New Zealand where prices haven't been inflated by stupid laws. When I checked a few years ago you could buy a suppressor at a hardware store in NZ for around $25.

This guy makes custom suppressors starting at $85 NZ.http://sub-silentsuppressors.com/?page_id=42

This place has .22 suppressors starting at $65 NZ. http://www.outdoorsupplies.co.nz/moderators.htm

[rotor]

I still own a Western Auto bolt action 22 that I bought from Western Auto when I was a youngster. I don't recall how old I was, but back in those days you could walk into a store and purchase a firearm and walk out, no questions asked. It was like buying a washer or a sofa.

In the 70's I bought two AR7 explorers ( 22LR) at Western Auto for $49 each. Gave one to a friend and kept one. Never had a failure to fire and still have a 25 rd magazine that nobody makes anymore. I guess nowadays that might even be considerd an "assault" rifle with the big mag. Will pass this on to my grandson unless they ban that too.

[jimlongley]

I still own a Western Auto bolt action 22 that I bought from Western Auto when I was a youngster. I don't recall how old I was, but back in those days you could walk into a store and purchase a firearm and walk out, no questions asked. It was like buying a washer or a sofa.

I don't have, due to unfortunate and complicated circumstances, the bolt action single shot Winchester .22 that I bought off the wall in the local gas station when I was 12.

[BigGuy]

That's exactly the way I bought my Remington model 788 bolt action .243.
That would have been around 1972 or so. Purchased from Central Hardware in Gillett Arkansas. I was about 16 years old. I'd worked that summer at Gillett Elevator and Dryer and was buying a deer rifle for the next season. Dad and I walked into the same hardware store where I'd bought a lawn mower on credit and paid for it over the summer mowing lawns. I told Mr Place what I wanted. He looked at dad, who gave him a nod, then handed me the rifle. I paid cash and took it home.
I like a lot of things about the modern world, but there are quite a few things I miss about the world I grew up in.

[VMI77]

That's exactly the way I bought my Remington model 788 bolt action .243.
That would have been around 1972 or so. Purchased from Central Hardware in Gillett Arkansas. I was about 16 years old. I'd worked that summer at Gillett Elevator and Dryer and was buying a deer rifle for the next season. Dad and I walked into the same hardware store where I'd bought a lawn mower on credit and paid for it over the summer mowing lawns. I told Mr Place what I wanted. He looked at dad, who gave him a nod, then handed me the rifle. I paid cash and took it home.
I like a lot of things about the modern world, but there are quite a few things I miss about the world I grew up in.

But I'd guess a lot of what you like about the modern world stems from social and scientific advancement rather that the expansion of government power.

[SlickTX]

Interesting that they sold the Tommy gun from an address in NYC.

[howdy]

The CMP will STILL send a semi automatic rifle straight to your front door.

[Pawpaw]

That's exactly the way I bought my Remington model 788 bolt action .243.
That would have been around 1972 or so. Purchased from Central Hardware in Gillett Arkansas. I was about 16 years old. I'd worked that summer at Gillett Elevator and Dryer and was buying a deer rifle for the next season. Dad and I walked into the same hardware store where I'd bought a lawn mower on credit and paid for it over the summer mowing lawns. I told Mr Place what I wanted. He looked at dad, who gave him a nod, then handed me the rifle. I paid cash and took it home.
I like a lot of things about the modern world, but there are quite a few things I miss about the world I grew up in.

When I was 16, I worked in a hardware store and sold several rifles.