FOPA 1986- Did you know?

[LAR-15]

Did you know that the Republican lead senate voted to kill an amendment that would have prohibited buying handguns out of state?

The sad fact is the Republican senate cowered to an anti gun house and agreed to an anti gun version of the FOPA authored by none other than William Hughes.

Harold Volkmer's version wasn't even brought up DESPITE a successful discharge petition.

Just imagine if REPUBLICANS had been in control of the House during the FOPA debate of 1985/1986.

Instead of Charles Rangel controlling the floor, Tom Delay.

 

[beerslurpy]

But you have to remember that the late 80s were not exactly the most pro-gun of times. The republicans were probably very afraid of being portrayed as gun nuts. This is when the Democrats were just starting to beat the drum towards "gun control = tough on crime" that paid such dividends in the 90s.

The NRA was not viewed back then as an unstoppable juggernaut. Its views were largely locked out of the mainstream media and gun owners were a largely apathetic and non-political group. It wasnt until the mid 90s after the AWB that gun owners suddenly became a voting block that could turn elections if they got mad enough.

 

[LAR-15]

True but my point still stands.

If Republicans had run the House then nobody would have bothered to bring up a machinegun ban.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Well, to be fair to the Senate Republicans - the reason they voted on the House version without changes is because if they had made any changes to the 1986 FOPA, then the bill would have had to go to conference committee and it didn't stand a chance in hell of surviving such a conference committee.

The fact it made it out of the House at all was a minor miracle considering it had been killed in committee the previous seven years.