Statement by the President on the Tie Vote on a Gun Control Bill in the House Judiciary Committee.
THE DEADLOCK in the House Judiciary Committee, which resulted in the defeat of the strict gun control legislation I recommended yesterday, is a bitter disappointment to all Americans and to the President. There is no excuse whatsoever for failure to act to prohibit the interstate mail-order sale of rifles. Of the 2 million guns added each year to the arsenal already in the hands of millions of Americans, 1 million are sold by mail order houses in interstate commerce. And 30 percent of the murders by firearms committed each year in this country are by rifle and shotgun fire.
I hope that the House Judiciary Committee will promptly reconsider this shocking blow to the safety of every citizen in this country.
Note: The Gun Control Act of 1968 was approved by the President on October 22, 1968 (see Item 553). The Omnibus Crime Control and safe streets Act of 1968, containing gun control provisions was approved by the President on June 19, 1968 (see Item 320).
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on the Tie Vote on a Gun Control Bill in the House Judiciary Committee. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237115