It would still be a mix, for where people purchase. Back from before the ability to have firearms ship to your front door was infringed upon, mail order was big but gun stores were also more common, even in malls. The less hassles would mean more businesses would likely start carrying them.
If you think online gun sales direct to your home would kill off local gun stores, think about what the world was like back when mail order firearms to your door was normal and not outlawed by illegal infringement. That's what legal online sales would basically be like. There were Plenty of Gun stores, Guns were in every Sears, JC Penny's and every major department store. They were sold in Hardware stores, and in Rural areas at the Gas station/General stores. Since the could be sold directly, ads for them were in far more places, giving a greater public presence which helped people not see them as something out of place or something dangerous needing to be reported to the police..
Think about s
pre-1968 America (or better yet a pre-1934 USA is an even a better dream), guns, ammo, and all sorts of armaments, all shipping right to your door. Your mailman and/or UPS drivers could actually easily pick up and carry (back then now weight limits are in place) a couple of boxed rifles, handguns and/ or carry several crates of ammo stacked in 1 trip . They would walk your long awaited purchase ( Purchasing mail order back then was often 4-6 weeks wait, remember your order had to to get them factors in there and the check clearing, yes people wrote bad and fake checks back then.....) to your front door or into your house for where you wanted them to set your order down.... Yes, delivery people used to not just throw your packages at your porch/door and leave no matter what the value, or the item was.
America was different, part of what led to this loss was building of events to ""perfect storm"" to force congress to act part that this was Lee Harvey Oswald bought his gun through Mail Order(today's internet sales), that he used to assassinated President John F. Kennedy,(read the free "Guns" magazine linked below to see how that played out from the gun community's view) with a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. Some that was Racial issues with Black Panthers arming themselves(can you blame them? ) With other crime issues.....
When you were able to have guns ship to your home, prices were more stable as prices reflected what was printed from what was sent in at least 1/2-2 months ago. No adjusting prices based on the news cycle of that day/hour. So dealers had set a price and hoped no printing errors occurred, they couldn't just go change the price because there is surge in sales, which any would come from mailed in payments arriving in about 1-3 weeks after an "event"... Some of the people online today would loose their shit having to waiting 6-8 weeks for their gun and accessories to arrive. The internet has not improved all things.
"Shotgun News" (
"Firearm News" today) and
"Gun Lists" was full of ads and thick (take at least 6 of 2022's issues and stack them together and that was just aver light single issue back then) , and every gun and all sporting magazines had multiple pages of ads of guns for sale with prices. You want Lee Enfield, ok which model........ With all that mail order , they still had a lot more Gun Stores then we do today. Every Department Store and even Hardware stores sold guns and ammo. That isn't there today for most of the country. Rural area's had their "general" store/ gas station where people a lot of what was stocked in variety of stores and the store did mail order also. So they made orders from the bigger city/supplier at better rate than you could buy it at there. Saving you a trip. A 30-45 minute ride today could be multiple hours back then due to the lack of (quality)roads.
Doubt me go look at
Gun's Magazine's classic issues from January 1954 up the current new old issue of April 1972 at
https://gunsmagazine.com/classic-issues/classic-guns-magazine-editions/ That is presently at 208 free pdf issues of Gun Magazine goodness up to the current old issue of April 1972, in May 2022 , they will upload May 1972 and June the next month will have the next chronological issue and they have been doing this for over a decade. Enjoy the ads in them and weep. If nothing else read the News Articles, The editor's section and especially read what the Congress Critters wrote back when asked to answer what they believed the Send Amendment Stood for. This is best lesson for learning how we are going to get hit again and again and have more infringements. Each one of these was just not enough but if had they taken more.... To only have them come back take more of that proverbial cake slice by slice.
Here is what mail order looked like, also note where a lot of these former business used to be located in the ads in those old issues. I've posted previous ads and articles here in different forums the past from there, here are few to get you tempted to start reading.
"Guns"- May 1955 - Hy Hunter advert
Guns Magazine October 1966 page 9
Mars Equipment Corp How about a nice CETME rifle for $219.95
Guns Magazine October 1966 page 64
Earliest use of ""Assault Rifle""(that I found in Guns Magazine) for a German G3 in advert Western Military Arms corp.
![](https://pbase.com/thresholdprod/image/164465156/original.jpg)
I swear the dam price of powder is to high I tell you .....
Guns May 1955 ads DuPont Powders 2 bucks a pound is just too damn high, $1.50 a pound is a fair price....
![](https://pbase.com/thresholdprod/image/164624561/original.jpg)
Let us not forget
Numrich aka Gun parts corp long history, Sadly when this issue was uploaded Numrich was announcing the closing of their customer show room in 2010.
Numrich store opening
Guns November 1960 page 66 1 of 2
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Numrich store opening
Guns November 1960 page 67 2 0f 2
![](https://pbase.com/thresholdprod/image/164624564/original.jpg)
If you really smart you might even know which Year to start reading about that Mattel XM16E1 (...the M-14 is going to stay as the standard service rifle... even if they have to cook every test and competition in its favor.....) and that Armalite 15 being both new guns , that were being reviewed, along with letters to the editor from various soldiers on the subject and their experiences.....