Let's not forget Ronald Reagan endorsing the Brady Bill and signing the "Make it financially impossible for any normal person to buy a machine-gun commerce act of 198?"
Thank G_d, I've never been normal nor even want to be.
He was well into his Alzheimer's when "he" endorsed the Brady Bill. I suspect it was actually Nancy.
As to the 1986 Firearm Owner's Protection Act, well he might not have even known that single anti gun provision was in what was otherwise a very pro arms rights bill. It removed some, but sadly not all, of the worst provision of the 1968 Gun Control Act. For example, it removed the restrictions on buying ammunition, without having to provide ID and sign for every box of .22 shorts, and once more allowed "mail order" sales of ammunition. It also reined in some of the worst practices of the BATF. It also provided protection for transporting guns through arms rights hostile jurisdictions. Lots of good stuff in that bill, the most important perhaps being the addition of single word "willfully" into the law, making willful violations of the law a requirement for punishment. That cut way back on the BATF's then current practices.
The machine gun ban was literally a last minute amendment that most people didn't even know about, or if they did, understand the effect of. In fact if the courts interpreted it literally (how are laws supposed to be interpreted??) it wouldn't have changed anything. Unfortunately it's interpreted and enforced by the intent of of it's author, which was indeed to ban machine guns.
Read all about it:
THE FIREARMS OWNERS' PROTECTION ACT: A HISTORICAL AND LEGAL PERSPECTIVE
I knew Reagan was old when he was President, but he wasn't that old.