Reinventing Reagan No. 1832

This is how you deal with your Sainted Leader of all things American when reality doesn't fit your narrative.

Asked about Reagan’s position during an appearance on MSNBC shortly after Obama’s remarks, Erich Pratt of Gun Owners of America, suggested that Reagan only supported greater restrictions because he was senile:

ANDREA MITCHELL (HOST): What’s the problem with registering a gun? If you have a bushmaster, first of all, why would you have one?
PRATT: President Reagan owned an AR-15.
MITCHELL: And he supported gun control. He advocated…
PRATT: In his later years. We have to keep that in account.MITCHELL: In his later years he was almost killed by John Hinckley.
PRATT: But all through his presidency he opposed gun control, that’s my point.

If only supporting gun legislation "in his later years" constitutes 1986 and the prime of his presidency Pratt would be right.  Since it doesn't, Pratt is wrong as anyone has ever been.

As Think Progress noted, Reagan in 1986 signed a law prohibiting the ownership of automatic rifles that were not already subsequently registered prior to that year. Also, as governor, Reagan routinely supported gun legislation including one that mandated a 15-day waiting period before purchasing a handgun.  Both of those pieces of legislation are way more stringent to gun owners than anything President Obama signed today.  And none of it happened "in his later years."  To state, "all through his presidency he opposed gun control," is insanely stupid and completely inaccurate.