“The voices that blocked these safeguards were not the voices of an aroused nation. They were the voices of a powerful lobby, a gun lobby, that has prevailed for the moment in an election year. But the key to effective crime control remains, in my judgment, effective gun control. And those of us who are really concerned about crime just must–somehow, someday–make our voices felt.
“We must continue to work for the day when Americans can get the full protection that every American citizen is entitled to and deserves—the kind of protection that most civilized nations have long ago adopted. We have been through a great deal of anguish these last few months and these last few years—too much anguish to forget so quickly. So now we must complete the task which this long needed legislation begins. We have come a long way. We have made much progress–but not nearly enough.” – President Lyndon Baines Johnson in What LBJ Warned Allies in the Gun Control Debate After Robert Kennedy Was Assassinated [via historynewsnetwork.org]