“the 1986 machine gun ban wasn’t even passed. It was illegally recorded in the registry as though it had passed.”
Huh? Never knew that...
Well, a bill was passed, but the part which pertains to the machine gun registry was contained within an amendment to the larger bill, called the Hughes Amendment. The Hughes Amendment was voted down in committee, but it was illegally recorded as part of the larger body of the host bill. When the final language was up for a vote, nobody outside of the conspiracy realized that the language closing the registry had been slipped back in. It's just another reason for requiring live readings of proposed legislation.