[THE BEATLES]. "Happiness is a Warm Gun" -- COMPLETE YEAR (12 ISSUES) OF THE 1968 "AMERICAN RIFLEMAN" MAGAZINE, including the infamous May issue which was the inspiration for John Lennon's song of the same name

Washington DC: National Rifle Association of America, 1968. Very good. Complete run of 12 issues (binder size: 315 x 230 mm), each profusely illustrated with photographs and preserved in original color-printed wrappers, stapled as issued, housed in original NRA-issued binder with working metal catches (SEE IMAGES): maroon cloth, upper cover embossed with depictions of rifles, American eagles, and the NRA logo, spine embossed with depiction of an early rifleman (upper joint splitting, some unobjectionable wear to contents, the binder and magazines leaning on outer bottom corners). 1968 IS A PIVOTAL YEAR IN UNITED STATES HISTORY, AS WELL AS THE HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION; OFFERED HERE IS THE ENTIRE YEAR OF "AMERICAN RIFLEMAN." FURTHERMORE, THE MAY 1968 ISSUE FEATURES THE INFAMOUS "HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN" ARTICLE WHICH INSPIRED JOHN LENNON TO WRITE ONE OF THE TRULY GREAT BEATLES' SONGS.

For reasons that have never been fully explained, Beatles' producer George Martin brought a copy of THIS issue of the "American Rifleman" to the recording studio. Lennon recalled his reaction to the title of the article thusly: "I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something." The one-page article, written by Warren W. Herlihy, relates the story of how a father introduces his teenage son to shooting, and how much the young man had come to enjoy the "sport." (For a detailed history of this song, see Turner, A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song, 2012, p. 178).