Richard Nixon was one of few presidents in modern times that expressed such big interest in gun control.

Previously unreported Oval Office recordings and White House memos of Nixon show that he refused to give in to the powerful handgun lobby National Rifle Association.

"I don't know why any individual should have a right to have a revolver in his house," Nixon said in a taped conversation with aides. "The kids usually kill themselves with it and so forth." He asked why "can't we go after handguns, period?"

"Let me ask you," Nixon said to Attorney General John Mitchell in June 1971, "there is only one thing you are checking on, that's the manufacture of those $20 guns? We should probably stop that."

Mitchell responded that banning those guns would be "pretty difficult, actually," because of the gun lobby.

"No hunters are going to use $20 guns," Nixon countered.

"No, but the gun lobby's against any incursion into the elimination of firearms," said Mitchell.

Nixon never publicly stated his wish for handgun ban however worked with Congress on various measures of gun control.

Nixon went on: "I know the rifle association will be against it, the gun makers will be against it." But "people should not have handguns." He laced his comments with obscenities, as was typical.

These recordings come out at a time when gun control is gaining a lot of interest. Especially following the school shootings in different places there is a push both nationwide and state levels of adding new measure of gun control.