text: Hogwash. Unless you lived in rural America citizens in most towns rarely had weapons in the 50's and 60's. I know I lived back then. First and only gun I ever saw in private hands was an flintlock pistol missing lots of key parts. Never saw another until I came to Alaska. In my 17 years in that town of 20,000 there was one gun fatality and it was a suicide. Large scale gun ownership is only decades old and was done with little or no planning except by munitions and arms manufactures. The Gun Rush. But like with any rush toxic stuff is left in it's wake a the poison is starting to leach out.