Firearms: Democratic Arsenal

In the early days of World War II, France's Jean Monnet, then his country's Ambassador to Washington, referred to the U.S. as the "arsenal of democracy." Last week it was clear that the nation is also something of a private arsenal, even more so than most people had suspected. The new federal firearms act not only bans interstate sale of arms and ammunition but also toughens the Government's 30-year control over automatic weapons, sawed-off shotguns, machine guns, silencers, gadget guns, bombs and grenades. Owners must register all such hardware with Washington as of Dec. 1 or face a maximum...

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