Re: Reagan:Questioning an Anti-Gun Legacy...

Re: Reagan:Questioning an Anti-Gun Legacy
Chuck said:
1968 was the federal GCA - Gun Control Act - that forced gun dealer
licensing, signing a register to buy ammo, and an end to ordering guns
by mail to be shipped to your house, since Lee Harvey Oswald's Cancarno
came from a mail-order place. I believe this act also made things like
20mm anti-tank rifles, which could also be mail-ordered by any kid with
the bucks, Class 3 weapons.

the 1986 law, Reagan's thing, was a 'gun owner protection' law that was
amended at the last minute to ban the new production of machine guns for
civilian sale. It essentially froze the pool of full-auto guns available
for you and I to obtain at the number in the ATF's records as of its'
effective date. It also banned anyone from making a new full-auto gun
design in their garage - so no future John Brownings need be born now.
Prior to this law, you could convert a semi-auto to full-auto or select
fire by obtaining a $200 tax stamp from the ATF.

It's unclear if Reagan knew of the amendment before he signed that bill,
or if he ever knew about it.
Chris Said:
That's correct...It was slipped into the Volkmer-McClure Gun
Owners Bill of Rights as a last minute amendment by, IIRC,
then-Representative Chuckie Schumer. It was an obvious attempt to
poison the bill and get the NRA to kill it again for that year. Since
the bill accomplished so many other good things--allowing interstate
sale of long guns, requiring ATF to prove unlicensed sellers were
actually "in the business," and other reforms--NRA and other gun rights
organizations opted to ignore the ban and push for passage of the bill
anyway. When Reagan signed it into law, he wasn't signing a machine gun
ban. Rather he was signing a much-needed restoration of basic rights to
gun owners that just happened to have a machine gun ban included by the
antigun forces at the last moment.