LBJ Signs Gun Control Act of 1968, Expanding ATF Firearms Jurisdiction

President Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968 on October 22, 1968, in direct response to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. earlier that year. The law banned mail-order handgun sales (closing the loophole Lee Harvey Oswald had used), required federal firearms licenses for dealers, prohibited sales to convicted felons and minors, and gave the ATF — then still within Treasury — jurisdiction over all federal firearms laws. The GCA established the regulatory framework that governs firearms commerce to this day.