Before Trump’s wild shifts on the NRA, Ronald Reagan took on the gun lobby

President Trump floored Republican lawmakers Wednesday when he embraced gun restrictions during a televised meeting at the White House, putting him at odds with his own party and with the National Rifle Association.

But it wasn’t the first time a powerful GOP voice defied the gun lobby.

On May 3, 1994, Ronald Reagan and two other former presidents sent a letter to House members, urging them to support a controversial ban on lethal, military-style assault weapons. At the time, President Clinton was battling Republicans, conservative Democrats and the NRA to pass a bill barring many semiautomatic rifles.