He was Ronald Reagan's press secretary prior to the assassination attempt. That said here is Ronald Reagan on
Gun Control
“I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for
sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense. But I do
believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed
for defense of a home.”
~Ronald Reagan, at his birthday celebration in 1989.
As governor of California, Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford Act, which prohibited the carrying of firearms on your person, in your vehicle, and in any public place or on the street, and he also signed off on a 15-day waiting period for firearm purchases. “There’s no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons,” Reagan said at the time, according to Salon.com.
In 1986 as president, he signed into law the Firearm Owners Protection Act, which “banned ownership of any fully automatic rifles that were not already registered on the day the law was signed.”
After leaving the presidency, he supported the passage of the Brady
bill that established by federal law a nationwide, uniform standard of a
7-day waiting period for the purchase of handguns to enable background
checks on prospective buyers.
In 1991 Reagan wrote an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times
stating his support for the Brady Bill and noted that if the Brady Bill
had been in effect earlier, he never would have been shot. He also urged then President H.W. Bush to drop his opposition to the bill and lobbied other members of Congress to support the bill.
In 1994 Reagan wrote to Congress
urging them to listen to the American public and to the law enforcement
community and support a ban on the further manufacture of
military-style assault weapons.
For some reason, the right has decided that these policies are somehow "wrong" and that they are in some way "liberal", yet there are loads of conservative statements from way back similar to those made by Reagan.
What's up? Why play with public safety?
Hi Laci,
ReplyDeleteNice research. Thank you for that.
I always liked Ronald Reagan. He was one of those conservatives who cared about the same things that we all care about. In the old days, it just seemed like we didn't all completely agree how to go about the business of government.
Today's gun-toting, bible-thumping conservative is a menace to society. And not just our own society.
Yup those fucking bible thumpers are sure as shit shooting up the streets in Chicago, with their fight over drug turf....
ReplyDeleteNo, shooting up the streets of Chicago is one thing the bible-thumping gun nuts aren't doing. But they sure as shit are doing a lot of other things wrong with their guns.
DeleteWake up call Thomas. A far greater quantity of illegal drugs, and I don't just mean marijuana, are consumed and demanded by white people than any other race. They are the fuel that is burning up this hemisphere.
DeleteI don't think anyone in South America, Central America or Mexico is particularly concerned about drug use in Chicago.
Man, you are a racist. Turn off your TV. Understand life in the twenty-first century. I think we're the bad guys, or at least the hopeless fuddie-duddies, such as yourself, asleep at the switch.
The biggest push for gun control in the last 40 years was by Republicans, as you point out.
ReplyDelete