Congrats on missing the entire point. Reagan was not president in 94, but he was the most powerful political force in action behind the AWB. Try all you want, you can't rewrite history. Without Reagan, the first AWB would have died.i didnt know Reagan was in office in 94.....oh yea, thats when he got in trouble for Watergate, right after he ended WW2 by dropping the bomb i believe..
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/ronald-reagan-helped-pass-the-1994-assault-weapons-ban/
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/29/opinion/why-i-m-for-the-brady-bill.html
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/how-ronald-reagan-passed-the-assault-weapon-ban
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-04-07/opinion/op-251_1_brady-bill-fred-romero-handgun-control
EDIT TO ADD:
Here's how close the vote was:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/817036/posts
The result was the bill passing by the narrowest of margins, with a vote count of 216 for the bill, 214 against and with 3 abstaining; it was numbered as one of the narrowest victories in legislative history.
The ludicrous notion that the "dem majority" in congress sailed he bill through is patently false. It would have died without strong lobbying from Reagan.
reagan may not have written the bill, but he is the midwife who helped deliver it.
It is also a myth to think the parties voted "straight line" on the AWB. According to this article:
voting patterns on the 1994 assault weapons ban in the House. In all, 64 House Democrats voted “Nay” on the omnibus crime bill, and most were Southern “Blue Dog” Democrats with high second dimension scores. Conversely, 46 House Republicans voted “Yea,”
A total of 46 republicans "crossed the line" and voted for it. Obviously, many would not have without the strong push from Reagan and the political cover his stance afforded them.
http://voteview.com/blog/?p=693
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