Watch Robert F. Kennedy discuss gun control 47 years ago in Roseburg, Oregon

In May of 1968, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy called for stricter gun control measures during a campaign stop in Roseburg, Oregon — the same town where a gunman killed nine people at Umpqua Community College last Thursday.

CBS News shared a clip Tuesday from the May 25, 1968, edition of CBS Evening News, with anchor Walter Cronkite saying Kennedy was answering "criticism from those who say legislation would deny Constitutional guarantees on the right to possess arms." Kennedy told the crowd that it was too easy for some people, like convicted murderers, to obtain guns through mail orders.

"A man on death row in Kansas, who killed half a dozen people, someone there sent for a rifle through the mail from Chicago for him to have a rifle while he was waiting on death row after killing people, and the rifle was sent to him," he said. "Does that make any sense that you should put rifles and guns in the hands of people who have long criminal records, people who are insane, people who are mentally incompetent, or people who are so young they don't know how to handle rifles or guns?" Kennedy was assassinated two weeks later in Los Angeles. Catherine Garcia

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.