TIME Magazine: Gun Laws Were Much Tougher 150 Years Ago

“When we were all colonies, there were laws in the 1600s making it illegal to discharge a weapon near a road, near buildings, populated areas or on Sundays, and that barred discharge of a gun during social occasions. In New Jersey there was a law that said you weren’t allowed to discharge a weapon when you were drunk and the two exceptions were at weddings and funerals. In the old ‘Wild West,’ they took people’s guns away when they were in a populated area, only to be retrieved when they left. That exemplifies how laws were much tougher 150 years ago than in the last 30 years.” – Olivia B. Waxman in TIME magazine, How the Gun Control Act of 1968 Changed America’s Approach to Firearms