Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Dunedan
I wonder how "DOA" they'll be when Schumer, Feinstein, McCarthy or Reid attached them to a Bailout bill, or the 2010 Defense Appropriations, or some other "must-pass" piece of legislation as a "rider?" That's how the Firearm Owners Protection Act was used, behind the scenes, to kill civilian-legal machinegun manufacture in May of 1986. The rider was attached, a vote was held in the middle of the night, and by the time anyone who could/would have objected was allowed to -read- the amended legislation, it'd already been passed in the dead of night, just like a congressional pay raise.
The mere existence of these bills is a serious threat, since any of them could be attached in that same manner at any time.
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Sorry, but you really dont understand the rules of the House or the Senate. Any "substantial" amendment passed by one house, even in the middle of the night, still has to be approved by the other house....so in fact, one house in Congress always has the time to review any of these "midnight" amendments.
It cant happen the way you described and I doubt that it did in 1986, but I'm not interested in wasting my time to check the Record of 20+ years ago.
(added: a quick check of the Record...the Senate passed a version.....the House amended it (at night) and sent it back to the Senate where it sat for nearly a month, giving every Senator plenty of time to read the amendment...it was then debated for a day and passed by the Senate.......it looks to me like your version of what happened in 1986 is another one of those NRA myths!)
And the last time something marginally comparable to attaching an AWB (or anything gun related) to a defense appropriation bill was attempted in the Senate with a proposed amendment (what you call a "rider") to the Dept of Homeland Security Appropriations bill in 06 to allow for the confiscation of weapons during a "state of emergency" and it was defeated 84-16, with Obama voting with the majority.