National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

Thought This was GIM worthy.

http://gunowners.org/a052009.htm

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Good news!

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill today that included an amendment to repeal the gun ban on National Park Service (NPS) land and wildlife refuges.

The amendment, sponsored by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and attached to a credit card industry reform bill, passed the House overwhelmingly by a vote of 279-147.

For decades, law-abiding citizens have been prohibited from exercising their Second Amendment rights on NPS land and wildlife refuges, even if the state in which the land is located allows carrying firearms.

With some limited exceptions for hunting, the only way to legally possess a firearm anywhere in a national park is by having it unloaded and inaccessible, such as locked up in an automobile trunk. A Bush administration regulation partially reversed the ban, but that action was singlehandedly negated recently by an activist judge in Washington, D.C. The Department of Interior decided not to appeal that ruling.

Senator Coburn believes, like you do, that Americans should not be forced to sacrifice their Second Amendment rights when entering NPS land and wildlife refuges.

GOA worked with Coburn on an amendment that simply allows for state and local laws -- instead of unelected bureaucrats and anti gun activist judges -- to govern firearm possession on these lands.

The anti-gun leadership in both the House and Senate went berserk and fought to keep the Coburn amendment from being attached to the underlying bill. Sparks were flying on the floor of the House of Representatives today.

Anti-gun Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) whined that a "very good" credit card bill had been "hijacked" by the Coburn amendment. To this, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) pointed out that gun control is the policy of tyrants, as evidenced by the British attempt to confiscate firearms at Lexington and Concord in 1775.

Congressional leaders and entrenched bureaucrats have fought GOA over the NPS gun ban for the past eight years.

But your activism has finally broken through. The late Senator Everett Dirksen said, "When I feel the heat, I see the light!" Well, you have applied a lot of heat. Members of Congress know that they oppose your Second Amendment rights at their own peril.

As it stands today, both houses of Congress have now passed the Coburn amendment -- and President Obama is expected to sign the provision into law (only because it is part of a larger credit card bill that he really wants).

So, congratulate yourself for winning this long, hard battle. GOA was the leading, and often only, national gun group involved in this fight. Your involvement was absolutely vital to achieving this win.

Of course, many more battles lie ahead. President Obama continues to push for the Senate to ratify massive international gun control treaties. There is a battle over a Supreme Court nominee coming up. Anti-gun zealots in Congress are aggressively pushing to renew the Clinton gun ban and close down gun shows.

And as the health care debate picks up steam in the coming weeks and months, GOA is battling efforts to create a computerized national healthcare database. Such a database can be used to deny people their Second Amendment rights in the same way that so many veterans have lost their gun rights based only on the diagnoses of a doctor for things like combat-related stress.

GOA will be calling for action on these and other Second Amendment issues as they move through Congress.

In the meantime, have a safe Memorial Day as we remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that America would remain "Land of the Free."

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

While I firmly support the right to carry bill and could give two hoots about the credit card one, I hate to say it, I agree with her. Why can't they let each bill be judged upon it's own merit? It can't take that much more time to do them separately.

This time it was a "friendly" bill, more times than not, it is an "unfriendly" bill that gets tacked on.

Here's a thought, maybe they used the right to carry bill, to get the credit card bill passed!

I had also heard that the President gave them the goal of getting this done before the holiday. We will have to wait and see where it goes.

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

Now what will be interesting is if this is ALL National Park Service land.....including National Monuments.

Considering some of those are located in REALLY gun unfriendly areas, like DC itself, or NYC ( Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island ), can I say if caught with a loaded weapon "I was on the way to visit such and such monument" :biggrin:

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

From the "firearm friendly" NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/us...g.html?_r=2&em

For some good entertainment, be sure to click on the link and read the comments attached to the article.



Congressional Memo

Advocates of Gun Rights Are Poised for a Victory

Published: May 19, 2009
WASHINGTON � Advocates of gun rights are poised to win a Congressional victory that eluded them under a Republican president.

Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
�It is a shame. But you have to come to a realization around here that at this point in time, the N.R.A. gets the votes.� - Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California
To the frustration and discouragement of many Democrats, House and Senate lawmakers and aides say it now appears likely that President Obama will this week sign into law a provision allowing visitors to national parks and refuges to carry loaded and concealed weapons.

The White House is lukewarm at best on the gun provision, which was added to a popular measure imposing new rules on credit card companies. But the Democrats who now control both Congress and the White House appear ready to allow it to survive rather than derail a consumer-friendly credit card measure that Mr. Obama is eager to sign as Congress heads off for a Memorial Day recess.

�Timing is everything in politics,� said Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma and the champion of the gun proposal.

A majority of Democrats in the House and Senate still typically come down on the side of gun control. But the fact that they have been outmaneuvered by Republicans on gun issues is rooted in the fact that recently swollen Democratic ranks include senators and House members who represent Western states and more rural areas where gun ownership is popular and deemed sacrosanct.

When those Democrats team up with Republicans, they constitute a clear majority in the House and Senate.

�It is a shame,� said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California. �But you have to come to a realization around here that at this point in time, the N.R.A. gets the votes,� she said referring to the National Rifle Association.

�Either you are going to bring down the whole Senate and never do anything or you or going to swallow hard and say, �I will just vote my conscience on those amendments and speak out until people get a hold of their senses,� � Mrs. Boxer said.

The ideological split should be on vivid display as early as Wednesday if House leaders follow through on their plan to have an unusual two-part vote on the credit card/gun bill.

Under the current plan, the House would vote separately on the gun provision and the credit card elements of the bill, allowing lawmakers who favor the credit card provision but not the gun measure to split their votes and allow those who want both to have it all. The two aspects of the bill would be joined again before the legislation was sent to the White House.

The Senate approved the credit card bill on Tuesday on an overwhelming vote of 90 to 5, showing that Democrats who oppose the gun provision were not going to let it interfere with their backing of the broader legislation.

Mr. Coburn and his allies in both parties say the provision is less about guns than it is states� rights. Under the proposal, people who are otherwise authorized under state law to have firearms would be entitled to have them in national parks and wildlife refuges unless a state law prohibited it. Currently, firearms must be unloaded and secured on those national lands, creating what backers of the bill say is a situation where someone passing through a park with a firearm can be charged with a violation.

�I don�t like guns necessarily,� Mr. Coburn said. �What I want is those constitutional rights to be protected.�

Mr. Coburn has been trying for the past two years to get the measure through Congress. The Bush administration, in its final months, had pushed through a rule change that would have allowed the guns, but in March a federal judge blocked the change. The Obama administration chose not to appeal the decision while a review of potential impacts was made.

Gun control and conservation groups have urged the administration to insist on a credit card bill without the gun proposal. They have also joined top House Democrats in lamenting the inability of Senate Democrats to prevent Republicans from adding such politically charged proposals to unrelated legislation. A gun measure has also tied up a bill granting the District of Columbia full voting representation in the House, and Republicans are readying other gun rights initiatives for future consideration.

�I wish there could be more courage and leadership from our friends on the Hill,� said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, saying he believed that lawmakers were overestimating the gun lobby�s political might.

For their part, backers of the gun provision were relishing their looming victory.

�After using every legislative trick in the book to prevent a vote on gun rights, Democrat leaders are finally crying uncle and clearing the way for Congress to reinstate the Bush policy,� said Representative Doc Hastings of Washington, senior Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

No, it doesn't work like that. The media did a crappy job explaining it on the TV news last night. If you had just watched that, you would think that "now everybody that wants to do so can carry concealed weapons in the national parks." That's not what happened. Sen. Coburn's amendment just says that the state laws about CCW apply within the borders of that state, even on Federal national park land. So a national park that is within the state of Oklahoma has the exact same laws as any other place in Oklahoma. If you can legally carry a concealed weapon in Tulsa, you can carry in the park. If you don't have a permit and can't legally carry in Tulsa, you can't carry in the parks either.

So a national park that is located in a state that doesn't issue CCW's or recognize them from your home state is still going to be off limits within parks inside of that state.

Gregg

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

yay- NOW I can exercize a Constitutional right on government property!:applause_ YAY fer da gooberment!:adore:usflag











:sarcasm::moon:

They threw us a bone. They can kiss my ass...

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

Heard about this in the AM on NPR. All the "anti" politicos were California, New York, and New Jersey.
Go figure.
All the same, what needs to be watched is this international ownership info treaty in the works again. Your Washington DC elitist punk leadership is ALL ABOUT GLOBALISM. Any international agreement will likely trump our own laws, at least by intent.
Smile wide, and bury 'em deep.

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

You have the right to remain silent... :p

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

Here's a sampling of those comments:

Wow - a lot of these people think that people who carry guns are intrinsically bad and dangerous people, as if they have just been given a death sentence if they enter a National Park - as if they never knew that unless the Park Service searches every individual and vehicle entering a park, if someone wanted to carry a gun into a park, they will do so, with or without a permit, legally or illegally, because they are criminals, and criminals don't obey the law.

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

What do you expect from slaves that have been indoctrinated in state "Schools" (programming centers).

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

jeebus pootinanie

Are people really that stupid?:no_ma:

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

bill is not signed yet

I will wait to cheer once it is signed

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

Well, at least one of them got it right... :wink:

Re: National Park Service Gun Ban Repealed!
 

1. No, you can't carry on the mall in DC. This just means that the state law applies.

2. Agree that this is stupid to put in the credit card bill. But everything they do is stupid, so join the crowd.

3. The parks department has an interest in preventing poaching in parks, so I'm surprised they didn't do better than this. You can't possess a metal detector in a national park, but a hunting rifle?

4. Those anti gun hysterical people are worse than ever. There are a ton of people with guns in parks, just nobody ever sees them. Dont ask, don't tell. This doesn't change very much.