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SoF endorsements
Col. Brown informs me that Soldier of Fortune has issued its endorsements on the upcoming NRA Board elections. At the top of SoF's list is Steve Schreiner, a major Colorado activist (head of Firearms Coalition of Colorado), who won the Silver Star for courage in Vietnam. SoF also endorses Scott Bach, Bob Viden, Joe DeBergalis, Wayne Anthony Ross, and Manny Fernandez.
UPDATE: I was heavily involved with FOPA's passage, though I did have to miss the House debates. A day or two before the debates, I recall Rep. Volkmer telling me that Hughes was going to offer amendments, I think three. I recall in addition to the full auto one, another put a similar ban on newly-made suppressors; I forget what the third was. Volkmer said that he'd been sounding out the other Members, and one was going to pass, although he wasn't sure which one. (Literally, they were going to pass one and apparently which one didn't matter). The Members had stuck their necks out farther than they wanted to (remember, the House was under Demo control then, and its leadership was VERY antigun), and they were afraid of the backlash, and wanted to be able to tell the media and constituents that they weren't blindly following the gun lobby, why, they'd voted for something anti-gun, too. I said that made little sense, and Volkmer said he agreed, but that the reality.
It wasn't like it is today, and I'm glad to have lived to see it. To give you an idea: it took six months or so to negotiate changes that satisfied the Reagan Administration! Reagan may have given pro-gun speeches, but the Administration would have opposed FOPA if changes weren't made, weakening some provisions. I know, I was there.
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Ross is big NFA guy and Debergalis is a strong supporter and has penned articles for ARFCOM on suppressors in particular.
Thanks. Looking for alternatives to the trap / skeet / hunter crowd that stabbed the NFA folks in the back in 86.
It was Congressman Hughes who stabbed gun owners in the back in 1986 with his amendment to the Firearms Owners Protection Act, not the NRA or their board.FOPA was still a very good bill.
http://www.guncite.com/journals/hardfopa.html
Yes, Hughes submitted the amendment but it was the NRA that stood to the side and let it happen without one word of concern.
Oh, how the NRA promised to take steps to change the law after it was enacted but it has been over 25 years and not once has the NRA said anymore about it. Makes you wonder which group of gun owners will be sacrificed next by the NRA.
NRA opposed the Hughes amendment but they couldn't beat it in 1986. Those with the most votes win and they were dealing with an overwhelming Democrat House that was controlled by anti-gun lawmakers. The fact that FOPA even made it to the floor of the House was a miracle. That said, FOPA was still a big step forward for gun owners. Don't believe me, ask David Hardy.
Congress looked a lot different in 1986 than it does today. Just 8 years later Congress banned semi-autos that looked like "assault weapons" and as recently as 2004 the U.S. Senate passed legislation (which NRA killed) that would have renewed the "assault weapons" and magazine ban. It's kind of hard to repeal a ban on machine-guns when the Congress was working to ban semi-autos that looked like machine-guns. You could introduce a repeal of Hughes now and it still wouldn't pass Congress.
Any of these folks supporters of NFA firearms?