John Glenn on Gun Control Legislation (1968)

Duration: 1:17

Year Published: 1968

Sound: sound

Description: In this news segment for Houston’s KPRC-TV, newsman Ray Miller asks NASA astronaut John Glenn about his support of proposed gun control legislation. Broadcast on June 27, 1968, the interview came one day after the fatal shooting of a Houston police officer, which Miller references. The Associated Press reports that on June 26, Roderick Isaacks shot Officer Ben Gerhart to death after the officer stopped Isaacks’ car at a West Loop overpass in northwest Houston. A police chase ensued, ending when Isaacks’ car crashed into another vehicle. To avoid the collision, Officer Bobby James swerved his patrol car into a culvert, fatally injuring himself. Isaacks jumped from the wreckage and ran into a field. He was killed in the subsequent gun battle with police. The event came just three weeks after the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, further intensifying the national debate surrounding gun control legislation.