Prohibition and gun control

Is it possible to prevent prohibition of alcohol in the United States, and even prohibition of other drugs? With a POD no earlier than, say...1900, but preferably not before the start of World War I.

And, am I right to think that preventing prohibition would make gun laws in the United States far more...loose?
 
I'd say both are possible, if hard to achieve. Stopping Prohibition is harder, IMO, since you've got to get at the anti-immigrant issues involved, too, & the view alcohol is to blame, plus that drunkeness is somehow a moral failure.

Without Prohibition, you don't get the Mafia Wars of the '20s, so the demand to limit guns isn't quite so manic. This does mean the Thompson, frex, continues to be available to most gun owners.:cool::cool: Until, or unless, you get Anslinger preaching for restrictions on marijuana (& the extensive, incredible lies connected to it) in the '30s...:rolleyes: Or Nixon & others in the '60s. Which means no Drug War, & much less motivation for nutty gun controls now, either.

Of course, as soon as you get some nutcase in a clock tower, you're going to get the gun confiscators blaming the guns for the crime, so..:rolleyes:
 
Avoid World War I and you probably avoid Prohibition of alcohol at the federal level. IOTL, that was one of the things that gave the prohibitionists the push they needed (associating alcohol with the Germans) that allowed them to make it illegal at the federal level. So no World War I and you probably still have prohibition at the state level, but not really at the federal level, which leads to a less corrupt and less crime filled 1920s.

Of course the whole of the 1920s are changed without Prohibition, but you'd likely not see gun control develop as a result of it, and you'd also likely not see some technological advances in cars or airplanes, and of course, no NASCAR.
 
TNF said:
of course, no NASCAR.
Don't be ridiculous.:rolleyes:

It's not like there was no racing before 1949.:rolleyes: And NASCAR was as much a creation to prevent crooked promoters running off with purses as anything. How much of it reflected the postwar enthusiasm for speed, & the greater numbers of trained mechanics, as a result of WW2, IDK.

Would Bill France have created a Strictly Stock formula? Maybe not, but once you exclude the drag racers (covered by NHRA) & the land speed racers & the sports cars (SCCA), you've still got a fairly large group interested in fast cars. And that's not counting the mythical shinerunners that supposedly formed the entire field of every NASCAR race before 1973, when "Last American Hero" came out.:rolleyes:
 
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