American Shooting Sports Council presenting President Reagan with Colt firearms...

[SteyrAUG]

oh Jesus stop

Seriously? If these were picture of Biden doing EXACTLY the same thing the forum would have a meltdown.

There were people a LOT older than Reagan who knew about safe gun handling.

[Honest Abe]

Reagan is one of my FOUR favorite presidents of the 20th century and I have tremendous respect for the fact that after an assassination attempt he didn't cave into the Handgun Control BS because they tried. It's a shame when they found him 10 years later (out of office) dealing with Alzheimer's and got him on the record supporting the Clinton ban.

He really was a great American but still a long way from the perfect president. He had tunnel vision when it came to communism which led to the fall of the Soviet Union when he undermined the occupation of Afghanistan and spent them into oblivion with an arms race they could never keep up with but it also led to him doing things "by any means" which led to Iran Contra, and when you are buying weapons for a terrorist state like Iran so that you can fight communism in South America you have lost your way.

It was Nancy that pressured Ron into endorsing the AWB....never did like Nancy but sure did like Ron...bet Nancy said "If you don't sign that right now Ron I am going to file for divorce"!!!!!!!

[Diamondback]

It was Nancy that pressured Ron into endorsing the AWB....never did like Nancy but sure did like Ron...bet Nancy said "If you don't sign that right now Ron I am going to file for divorce"!!!!!!!

Per Mike Reagan, it was Sarah Brady exploiting RR's compassion for Jim taking a bullet meant for him... I suspect some of her issues were lingering resentment at Jim being a shooter and gun collector before the incident and weaponizing the shooting as an opportunity to stick it to him and ring him more under her thumb, much like Mark Kelly with Giffords per a friend who knows them.

[.45fan]

Not to forget that he took a bullet for the USA and continued to fully support our 2nd Amendment right. If Reagan were President today the USA would not be in the terrible mess it is in right now! He was a great American!!!!!!

Have to disagree here.

He signed the FOPA (aka: Hughes amendment) into law.

[Diamondback]

Look at pre-FOPA GCA68, how much of it FOPA repealed and then say that.

[MegademiC]

On the plane in proximity of people or on the range when he's at port arms?

Location doesnt matter, not at port arms though, I was commenting with the picture as a reference.

Either four rules exist or they do not. And one of those rules is "all firearms are ALWAYS loaded."

Treat them as if they are loaded. Its a reinforcement/backup to not muzzle sweep anything you dont want destroyed.

[SteyrAUG]

Have to disagree here.

He signed the FOPA (aka: Hughes amendment) into law.

You have no context.

FOPA was the first time something got through Congress that undid the worst parts of the 1968 GCA. If Reagan had not signed it, the hughes amendement would have simply been tacked onto the 89 Import Ban and Bush WOULD HAVE SIGNED IT.

FOPA allows you to buy and sell or trade guns as a private individual for favorable terms without having to be a FFL. If there was no FOPA there would be no EE here.

FOPA allowed for the importation of military surplus firearms, without FOPA you'd have never seen a Moisin Nagant and almost nobody would own K-98s.

FOPA allowed private, unrecorded sales of ammunition, including direct shipping to your home. Without FOPA dealers would still be recording ammo sales in a bound book and you'd have to go to an authorized firearms retailer to buy ammo.

But here is the most important reason Reagan signed FOPA, the preferred version trying to get through Congress was H.R. 3155 Racketeer Weapons and Violent Crime Control Act.

It closed the entire registry, machine guns, SBRs, suppressors....everything. NFA items would be "grandfathered" but non transferable. That means when the owners died, the estate would be required to sell the weapons to the Secretary of the Treasury.

That means damn few people would own ANY machine guns or NFA items today and nobody would be able to buy one at all. And it contained only a few of the beneficial provisions of FOPA (Firearm Owners Protection Act) 86 in order to make it attractive to some gun owners.

This is what the NRA and the President were up against with a Democrat majority Congress. This bill would have done little to eliminate abuses and excesses of the 1968 Gun Control Act and would have closed the books on machine guns, suppressors and everything else.

Reagan signed FOPA to prevent the Hughes / Rodino bill from being the only option.

Furthermore, FOPA 86 was the first and last time any law was passed that undid any parts of the 1968 GCA. Nobody else was gonna make it happen but everyone from Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, Obama, etc. would have likely signed any bill that closed the NFA registry. I'm not aware of a single President who ever signed anything into law protecting the rights of citizens to own machine guns.

[SteyrAUG]

Location doesnt matter, not at port arms though, I was commenting with the picture as a reference.

With people forward of the muzzle? It sure as shit does matter. The safe handling rules basically function as a "what would happen if the firearm discharged right now" exercise and then put in place safeguards that protect people "if the firearm discharged right now."

So had that rifle discharged and it was your mom leaning over a seat trying to stay out of the direction of the muzzle, still ok with you?

Somebody should have quietly took Ron aside and gave him a quick and polite refresher for "appearances sake" if that's how it needed to be presented because he had lots of bad gun habits. He defended second amendment freedoms better than most, but that didn't automatically make him a safe gun handler.

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Not to forget that he took a bullet for the USA and continued to fully support our 2nd Amendment right. If Reagan were President today the USA would not be in the terrible mess it is in right now! He was a great American!!!!!!

Based on past performance... if Reagan were president he would have signed legislation giving amnesty to tens of millions of illegals in the US, then trust Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to secure the border.

[SteyrAUG]

Based on past performance... if Reagan were president he would have signed legislation giving amnesty to tens of millions of illegals in the US, then trust Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to secure the border.

If fairness to Reagan, he was the first amnesty attempt, he had no idea what a complete disaster it would become. I don't agree with his decision, especially with hindsight, but I believe he thought it would fix things.