"The West wasn’t won with a registered gun” is a pro-gun slogan that began in western states such as Idaho, Utah and Alaska. The saying has been cited in print since at least 1968.

“Freedom wasn’t won with a registered gun” as been cited since at least 1976 and “America wasn’t won with a registered gun” since at least 2008. The saying has been printed on many gift items, such as bumper stickers, T-shirts and posters.


12 October 1968, The Sun (Baltimore, MD), “Frank Church Downplays Liberalism In Idaho Senatorial Campaign,” pg. A2, col. 4:
More than a quarter of Idaho’s 400,000 voters have fish-and-game licenses and Wallace headquarters has a sign here proclaiming “The West wasn’t won with a registered gun.”

18 January 1970, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, pg. A39, col. 1:
The New Frontier
Gun control laws are unpopular among many Alaskans so Rep. Howard Pollock, a Republican, decided to side with those who oppose such laws by issuing free bumper stickers that proclaim “The West Wasn’t Won With A Registered Gun.”

19 October 1970, State Times (Baton Rouge, LA), “Utah GOP Senatorial Candidate Admits Error May Cost Election” by Lee Byrd (AP), pg. 10-A, col. 6:
Says a Moss side: “Liberal or conservative, the West wasn’t won with a registered gun.”

Google Books
Let’s Go:
The student guide to the United States and Canada.
By Steven D. Stark
New York, NY: Dutton
1972
Pg. 562:
The message comes across clearly from Alaskan bumper-stickers: “THE CZECHS REGISTERED THEIR GUNS,” “WHEN GUNS ARE OUTLAWED ONLY OUTLAWS WILL HAVE GUNS” and the real favorite, “THE WEST WASN’T WON WITH A REGISTERED GUN.”

Google News Archive
29 January 1972, Eugene (OR) Register-Guard, “In the Editor’s Mailbag,” pg. 10A, col. 5:
Remember, “The West wasn’t won with a registered gun.”
CURTIS BEST
Rte. 4, Box 323M
WAYNE SIMPSON
3332 W. 17th Ave.
Eugene

19 July 1976, The Daily Times-News (Burlington, NC), “Open Forum: Gun Control,” pg. 4, col. 6:
And I quote “Freedom wasn’t won with a registered gun.”
Robert L. Simpson
Burlington

Google News Archive
8 January 1982, Pittsburgh (PA) Press, “Tangles Lines” by Colin Nickerson, pg. B-1, col. 1:
LOS NATION, N.H.—The drooping bumper of a pickup truck rattling along the gravel road sported the usual complement of stickers extolling gun ownership.

‘The West Wasn’t Won With A Registered Gun” and so on.

16 November 1986, Boston (MA) Globe, “The Klan finds a N. E. Wizard” by Steven Marantz, pg. A26:
Farrands operates the Invisible Empire out of a basement office decorated with a Confederate flag, color photographs of cross burnings, white-hooded Klansmen puppets and a bumper sticker that reads: “Freedom wasn’t won with a registered gun.”

Google Groups: alt.current-events.usa
The Everlasting GOP-Stopper--July 29 1996
Walter O’Wiley
7/29/96
The Everlasting GOP-Stopper
July 29, 1996
(...)
Conservative t-shirts and bumper stickers abound.  “I hate what Clinton and his gang of anti-gunner, gays and liberals are doing to America,” reads one. “New World Order--Never!” “Wake Up America!” and “Freedom Wasn’t Won With a Registered Gun” say others.

Google Groups: rec.guns
Looking for info/address for CCI 22LR ammo
Wayne....@hermes.jersey.net
10/5/96
(...)
“The West wasn’t won with a registered gun!”

Google Groups: soc.retirement
The West Was Not Won with A Registered Gun
MelvinFullerton
10/31/02
THe WEST was won by the United States Calvary at pone hell of a high cost of human lives--lying to the Indians--as the then President Johnson publically admitted in a speech to a joint sdession of congress--and most of all hired buffalo killers like Buffalo Bill Cody--to starve the plains Indians into submission =--to be used as slaves in the mosquito haunted rice patties in South Carolina just outside of Charleston--these unused rice patties

Google Groups: alt.politics.bush
Student disciplined for pen with gun company logo
jose
2/1/08
(...)
Wrote Wendy Weinbaum, “As a Jewess in the U.S., I recall that America wasn’t won with a registered gun! Let’s all put our 2nd Amendment FIRST!! And remember, criminal are stopped not by talk, but by FIREARMS.”

Google Books
The Ride:
A Collection of Cowboy Poems
By Keith Rounds
Xlibris Corporation (Xlibris.com)
2007
Pg. ?:
Gun Control
The West wasn’t won with a registered gun,
You’ve heard that saying before.
Guns weren’t abused because they were used.
They’re a part of the western lore.

They were a cowboy’s tools and only a fool
Would try to take ‘em away.
A gun would enable to put food on the table,
He used it almost every day.

Twitter
Corey
‏@mericababy
“America wasn’t won with a registered gun.” Some badass
3:51 PM - 16 Oct 2012

Twitter
danny
‏@danny1loc
america wasnt won with a registered gun #goodworthandco.
3:43 PM - 4 Jun 2013

Twitter
Macha
‏@mclmlnr
“America wasn’t won with a registered gun” OWI JE VEUX CE T-SHIRT
3:19 AM - 6 Jun 2013