 That changed in 1968 when you could no longer mail order a gun directly to your house in the wake of the shootings of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. That law was changed. The 1968 Gun Control Act was passed, meaning you couldn't just ship a rifle or a shotgun to somebody in the U.S. mail. Until then, it had been legal. That made it much easier up until 1968 for anybody without identification to acquire a firearm.