What was gun culture like in the 1990s?
>>35195924
I can only attest to the supremely bubbafied context of western Pennsylvania gun owners: actions were operated with bolts -semiautos are inhabited by enraged machine spirits that deliberately jam out of spite.
>>35195924
When in the 1990s? 1991 was much different from 1998.
1991 was a golden age. You could buy a Norinco SKS and the gunstore would give you 1000 rounds of ammo to go with it for free. Milsurp rifles of all kinds for under $50 each. Enfield? $44. Nugget? $29. Surplus Makarovs, Cz pistols, and AKs were pouring in from the eastern bloc. FALs were plentiful and cheap. You could still get Uzis and HKs for reasonable prices despite the '89 import ban. Full auto wasn't yet retardedly expensive.
The internet didn't exist and there wasn't much useful knowledge available, but if you had a good LGS or went to a gunshow (they were worthwhile then) you could get any of this stuff. No Brady check, either. Cash and carry with maybe a 4473.
Fudd shit still ruled but that was changing with the supercheap milsurp, 80s action movie effects, and the widespread adoption of wondernines. More and more people would show to the range with an AK or AR. Things still weren't nearly as tactical. If you were under 30 you were the odd one out and the elderly fudds would glare at you suspiciously when you walked into the LGS.
>>35195946
Revolver vs. semi, .45 vs. 9mm, and M14/AK vs. M16 arguments were way more intense back then compared to now.
>>35196066
>Things still weren't nearly as tactical
>under 30 you were the odd one out and the elderly fudds would glare at you suspiciously
So basically it was setting the stage for why gun culture got so fucked up later on in the decade and into today.
BUT THEN, SUDDENLY:
Was in high school pre Columbine. Had a rimfire range inside the school. Got to go innawoods and play war with M16s and M60s from the National Guard. Now the range is airgun only, and no more tactical training.
I moved to the USA in 1986, though I had visited before and it wasn't exactly a done deal.
The big thing I remember in the 1990s was fear, and it had been brewing since the 1980s when it became apparent that the Cold War was ending. There was a lot, and I do mean a lot, of it doing the rounds and especially at gun shows. If you think speculation over gun politics is bad now, it was at its absolute peak in that time. I genuinely thought the restrictions were going to go further than they did. I was not alone in that. People were convinced that they had spotted informers, or knew someone secretly to be an agent. Lots of arguing and threats. I don't know of anything more than that personally, but it wouldn't surprise me. People were seeing their way of life/their sport/their hobby/their natural right or all of them combined being needlessly and repeatedly infringed by a very select, very isolated group of people.
I had a lot of strange conversations in the 1990s, especially after 1994. A very close friend of mine resigned from a letter agency. The restrictions had pushed him over the edge, but he'd been disillusioned since the Gulf War. Other things came up around that time, including another friend's ski shop being raided. There was a lot of unpleasantness.
On the plus side, everything was a lot cheaper and people were a lot more polite. And I was younger. And I think the girls were prettier.
>>35195924
fuckkkk this makes me wish i kept all my old ranger joe catalogs and stuff like that. i remember seeing "preban" high capacity magazines for sale for ridiculous prices, even for today. all the boots for sale were either jungle boots or hi tech swat boots. east german and soviet surplus was plentiful and CHEAP as FUCK. i would have totally bought a ton of east german and soviet shit if i wasnt a kid with no job.
but i remember this... open any cheaper than dirt and look at all the cheap ass chinese made shitty accessories for the ar. its the same ugly, cheap crap they were selling back then but rifles didnt have rails, it was all clamp on stuff.
also i remember almost every ar had a full size a2 stock on it and i believe no flash suppressor. we did get some cop magazines like galls bc my dad was a cop, and those magazines had guns with adjustable stocks and flash suppressors, etc. that had to be "sold to the dept" wink wink kind of deal.
also cops didnt carry the beretta 92, regardless of what tv and movies showed you. most cops still carried revolvers or a s&w auto pistols. i dont remember hearing any of them carry glocks until i was much older, around the 2000s, but maybe that was just by me. they also didnt really have ars back then that much, they all had shotguns that were tacticooled out and the super elite cool dudes had an mp5. i shot my first gun, a norinco ak with the thumbhole stock, in 1998 or so.
>>35196102
No, the AWB was behind most of the subsequent retardedness that continues today. Once you couldn't get "tactical", everyone wanted "tactical". The war took care of the rest of it and everyone wanted to be an "operator". We did end up getting a lot of cool guns and stuff out of it and small arms development and doctrine did honestly advance lightyears because of the war, though, so there's the silver lining.
>>35196111
For safety! It's proven so fucking thoroughly that guns do not have any correlation with violence that they made up definitions so that they could even use a graph.
>>35196212
That's the 1998 side of things. Prices on everything tactical spiked and everyone got super paranoid. Justfiably so, to a certain extent. Ruby Ridge, Waco, the AWB, Clinton machinations with the UN, the Y2K stuff, etc. Militias and survivalists were popular.
The internet was still new and kind of fringe, so it fed paranoia more than debunked it and not many people knew about the AWB sunset or believed it would happen if they did.
It being the 1990s you had some Vietnam vets who knew a little from 30 years ago and a bunch of people who had watched action movies. There weren't a bunch of people who actually had BTDT and knew stuff around back then like there are now. That ignorance fed a lot of that shit, too. It's one thing to speculate about what the government might do and another thing if you have a guy who tried to do exactly tgat for ten years in Iraq to say "nope".
>>35196212
>>35196229
Im really jealous, hope you guys were able to stock up then. Did the assault ban apply to cananda too, or was it already existent
>>35196111
The AWB had some good timing though. In the eyes of the public it was a bill that just appeared one day. True, there were shootings before but nothing like how the UK and Australia had their gun bans as a direct response to Dunblane and Port Arthur respectively.
Had Columbine happened before the introduction of the AWB no one would've been able to negotiate a sunset clause. And the Colombine happened, showing that the gun ban didn't work.
Now, the gun culture is more active than ever because people know what can be taken away.
I assume full of fudds
>>35196454
The AR-15 has grown leaps and bounds. There are so many manufacturers out there, it basically turned into an open source platform and with the increase in competition came the increase of innovation. All of its failures from the 60's thru the 90's have been addressed, reduced, or at least mitigated. Its bad reputation is completely unjustified. If you have a bad AR-15 it's no longer the gun's fault, but the owner instead.
>>35196642
Brit here: my granddad let me hold a Beretta pistol of his (no idea what model, I was small), and told me that I'd be inheriting his gun collection one day.
Dunblane happened later that year, and he got rid of his entire collection, just shot rented guns at Bisley for a few years, and eventually just switched to collecting/restoring watches til he died.
>>35196703
Apparently he owned several handguns and rifles over the years. He competed, and my uncle Rex won an award for submachinegun marksmanship of some kind (this is WAY back).
What could have been, man.
>>35196454
I was talking about the causes of the AWB.
>>35196728
What could have been, indeed.
I remember, even into the early 2000's, if you showed up at the range with an AR15, SKS or AK, you were looked at some sort of Rambo by the members.
You were only cool if you had some fancy hunting rifle or American milsurp.
>>35196970
>no semi
>one shot every 30 fucking seconds.
FUCK. THAT. SHIT.
>>35197010
They might as well have called it a BP-only range at that point.
Guys, I feel like I have missed out on so much.
I was born in '94, so by the time I could buy guns everything was back to normal, just about.
I think it would benefit all of us if the oldfags of the board would fill us in on what has happened in the past, so that we can do our best to prevent the same from happening in the future.
>>35196970
>fixed
>>35196970
Fuggggg I hope they went out of business quickly
>>35196970
Oh god, that image is triggering my gun range PTSD. Living in the middle of flyover Hick Land means almost all the ranges are run by fudds like this. Got kicked out of one once because I was doing all of my shooting in three-round groups to work on quick follow up shots. The rangemaster became convinced I somehow had a trigger-burst M16 despite me literally handing him the weapon and showing him that it was semi-auto only.
>>35196970
I don't think a lot of people have realized how much gun culture has changed. Gun owners have shifted from outdoorsmen suspicious of change to an increasingly diverse (in terms of what they like and their backgrounds) group that has room for pretty much everyone under the sun, from bolt action lovers to guys that like to rice out their AR-15s and Glocks to look as cool as possible. Vets returning from the Second Gulf War, the AWB sunset, and vidya becoming huge have completelye destroyed a lot of old taboos on things like the AR-15 to the point where even the oldschool gun owners are giving AR-15s and other "tactical" guns a chance, and liking them.
That's not to mention how sport shooting has taken off because people are finding it fun and more people are taking their safety into their own hands with CCWs.
While the early 90s were a golden age of surplus guns and things we no longer have, I think guns in the US are actually at a great time now. There's something for everybody and gun training is becoming more accessible by the year, leting more people enjoy them and see they're not the evil devices of mass destruction they've been taught to think.
US gun culture tended towards fuddism
>>35196970
My cousin bought an indoor range from a fudd that had ridiculous rules like this and the first thing out of everyone's mouth that comes in is if they still have the stupid ass rules.
You weren't allowed to shoot your own ammo and had to buy their overpriced frangible bullmess. You also had to have a CCW permit and take a training course to even use the range. I can't imagine why they went out of business.
>>35196970
>indoor range I am a member of is lead boolets only
>also pistol only
>I only have a gen4 glock
>>35196683
Your grandfather was a rule-follower. Serves him right
>>35196683
>>35197442
Brits are failed rednecks
>>35195924
Hey Jim, I just got the new Ruger 10-22 man! Let's take it out with your mini-14 dude! Oh and have you heard of that awesome new gun the Heckler and Cock USP? Man I wish I could afford that, dude! That thing is groovy, nigga.
>>35196066
>The internet didn't exist
Yes it did, you fucking mongoloid.
>>35197596
I think he met the worldwideweb didn't exist, as it didn't go public until '91, and most people wouldn't have access to it for years after.
>>35196683
>got rid of his entire collection
have you checked his walls?
>>35197661
>not having AOL 3.0