Back in the 1960s, Ronald Reagan was governor of California. He was IN FAVOR of gun control.
Back in the 1960s, the National Rifle Association was IN FAVOR of gun control.
Y'see, the NRA was a group formed after the Civil War in 1871 to teach soldiers how to shoot properly because soldiers couldn't shoot worth a damn. It is said that they wasted 1,000 rounds of ammo for each Confederate soldier hit, making the war last far longer than it should have.
WHAT CHANGED EVERYTHING was Oakland's Black Panther Party. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale had founded the Black Panther Party (For Self-Defense) after some brutal anti-black killings in Oakland. They felt they had to arm themselves. When Huey and Bobby went to Sacramento to protest a proposed gun law, they packed weapons into the legislative chambers, FREAKING OUT EVERYONE.
Due to racism against the Black Panther Pary, racists in the NRA took an anti-black stance and decided that if the Panthers could pack guns, they would, too. The pacifist NRA board members were overthrown in a coup and the current pro-gun NRA was established in 1969.
So, we have the Republican governor of California in FAVOR of gun control, and the NRA in FAVOR of gun control, until they learned that blacks might use guns to protect themselves against racist violence. So, in short, the NRA started a race war.
Nice going, NRA.