Hughes Admendment screwup

[R3dundantC]

This may be old news, but I stumbled into this today. It's being spread around other gunsites might be some new ammunition for our legal battle-rifles.

via Wikipedia (yes, I am aware that it is wikipedia)

"The inclusion of the defeated Hughes Amendment in FOPA may constitute a Fifth Amendment violation.

As debate for FOPA was in its final stages in the House before moving on to the Senate, Rep. William J. Hughes (D-N.J.) proposed several amendments including House Amendment 777 to H.R. 4332 that would ban a civilian from ownership or transfer rights of any fully automatic weapon which was not registered as of May 19, 1986. The amendment also held that any such weapon manufactured and registered before the May 19 cutoff date could still be legally owned and transferred by civilians.

In the morning hours of April 10, 1986, the House held recorded votes on three amendments to FOPA in Record Vote No's 73, 74, and 75. The first vote involved the interstate sale of handguns and was Record Vote 73. The second vote was the controversial Hughes Amendment that called for the banning of machine guns. Despite an apparent defeat of the amendment by voice vote, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), at the time presiding over the proceedings, declared the amendment approved despite the recorded vote clearly indicating otherwise. The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were: ayes 124, noes 298, not voting 12. The Hughes Amendment regarding the banning of machine guns was defeated in Record Vote No 74. The bill, H.R. 4332, as a whole passed in Record Vote No: 75. Nevertheless, the Senate, in S.B. 49, adopted H.R. 4332 as an amendment to the final bill, which improperly included the defeated Hughes Amendment. It was subsequently passed and signed on May 19, 1986 by President Reagan to become Public Law No 99-308, the Firearms Owners' Protection Act."

Transcpript of the proceedings
https://docs.google.com
/fileview?id=0B769hyKWckIHOGU3OWQ2ODQtMjM1YS00Njg2LTg3MjEtOGJiNzFiNGJiZDgz&hl=en

So seeing as the Hughes Amendment was voted down, and them illegally/mistakenly included into the bill, shouldn't that make it null and void?

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Can an amendment be stripped out after the fact or would they have to repeal the whole FOPA?

 

[geekWithA.45]

Can an amendment be stripped out after the fact or would they have to repeal the whole FOPA?

Legislatively?

The legislature can amend a bill in any way it wants, even throwing in a negation to give the bill the opposite of its previous effect. Typically, very few bills are genuinely whole "new" statutes. Usually, they are amendments to other bills.

 

[NukemJim]

Theoreticly, yeah.

Practicly, don't hold your breath.

This is an emotional issue(like so many issues about firearms), where logic, facts, history and reality do not apply.

I would love for the Hughes Ammendment to go down, it just ain't going to happen.

Would love to be wrong.

NukemJim

 

[femoralis]

I'm pretty sure the inclusion of the Hughes Amendment after it lost the vote wasn't a "mistake" but rather FRAUD.