004-002
Date:
Tuesday, June 1, 1971 - 4:19pm - 4:21pm
Participants:
Richard Nixon, Bob Haldeman
Location:
White House Telephone
Download Audio Files:
MP3
Listen:
President Nixon: Yeah?
White House Operator: [White House Chief of Staff] Mr. [H.R. "Bob"] Haldeman∇, sir.
President Nixon: Yeah.
White House Operator: On the line, sir.
President Nixon: Hello?
H.R. "Bob" Haldeman: At Lockheed there'd be--”there are 31,000 that would be affected: 17,000 on Lockheed's payroll, and 14,000 on Lockheed's supplier's payrolls.1
President Nixon: OK.
Haldeman: On that contract.
President Nixon: Fine.
Haldeman: The total Lockheed employment roll is 90,000.
President Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: And if they go broke, they'd all lose their jobs. But the other one, the 31[000] is the contract figure.
President Nixon: Yeah. Fine.
Haldeman: Then on the gun control, it gets a little complicated. We launched a study when we came in because the Gun Control Act of '68 prohibited import of those guns but not domestic manufacture of them.
President Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: So we've been testing the domestically manufactured ones, and we're trying to draw a set of objective criteria at which time we will propose legislation, but we haven't done it.
President Nixon: Which would outlaw this kind of thing?
Haldeman: No, it's to plug the loopholes. So our legislation would be to require that only guns that met certain criteria could be manufactured and sold.
President Nixon: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Haldeman: And so the ones that can't hit the targets or don't hold up would be outlawed, but not necessarily just because of price.
President Nixon: Yeah, yeah. Would you say it's [Unclear.] under study, huh?
Haldeman: So we have been in the process of extensive testing in order to develop criteria for legislation to plug the loophole in this.
President Nixon: With regard to manufacture. Right?
Haldeman: Yeah.
President Nixon: All right. OK. Thank you.
Haldeman: OK.
1At the time, Congress was debating whether to provide $250 million in loan guarantees to the aircraft manufacturer for production of L-1011 Tristar Airbus. "Urges Senators to Pass Loan Move," New York Times, 8 June 1971. ↑
Printer-friendly versionOriginal tape courtesy of the Nixon Library. This transcript is a working draft. Please let us know if you find important errors.