@Don Alaska I believe I recommended "Unintended Consequences" to you some time ago. Today, a reference to it popped up unexpectedly! The story: I watch very little TV, Wheel of Fortune when permitted, followed often by the first 10 minutes or so of "HAG" TV's House Hunters International, wherein folks move, usually, from the States to some old, established historical area, often in Europe. This evening I was amazed to see a young couple moving from Miami to Solothurn, Switzerland! My wife noted my amazement, in answer to which I rummaged through my crumbling copy of John Ross's wonderful book, "Unintended Consequences", looking for the Solothurn advertisement I had viewed when reading te book in the 1990s. The Solothurn was an instrumental part of the success of the main character in proving his worth as an American patriot. Ross included the following advertisement from about 1963 which appeared in various trade and mechanical magazines, as well as, I suppose, firearms magazines. These rifles were actually sold to the American public back then as collectors'pieces. I hope the entire ad print is legible, for it illustrates how different the times and attitudes regarding America's "Gun Culture", were then. If illegible, holler, I will re-size.
When I saw this post I instantly thought of the BOYS I think it was spelled rifle also. Very familiar with both. Remember MaHunter
@Ken Anderson Thanks to FDR's National Firearms Act, we cannot possess any firearm having a rifled bore larger than .50 caliber, with various other stipulations and undecipherable phrases included in the wording, unless we register it with the Treasury Department, and pay them a $200 tax. 20mm is getting up real close to 1-inch, so would possibly be considered by BATFE (the Administrators of NFA 1934) to be classified under "Destructive Devices", which includes cannons (note the flowery way of defining any weapon one can think of). The truly weird part of NFA '34 is the ruling of lengths of rifles and shotguns. Rifle barrel length cannot be less than 16 inches, shotgun barrel length 18 inches, yet numerous handguns have been designed and sold which use shotshells instead of pistol ammunition, yet they escape the rigors of NFA. Additionally, various handguns are available which utilize high-powered rifle ammunition, thus being "illegal" short-barreled rifles, and they, too, are OK. One of the worst firearms related laws ever passed, NFA was put in place specifically to avoid laying off all those thousands of "Revenue Police Officers" made unneeded by the repeal of Prohibition. Frank