(c) Neala Schwartzberg
The NRA is delighted, park rangers are less than pleased, and the way the bill was pushed through congress was a cheat.
But it's a done deal.
Supporters tied it to a bill that was dearly wanted by the administration. According to the Washington Post: Coburn, who had long sought the change, inserted his amendment this month on credit card legislation that is one of Obama's top priorities. The move effectively forced Democrats to vote on the gun provision if they wanted to pass the credit card bill. (Coburn is Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma.)
Clearly the gun bill wasn’t popular enough get through on its own merits. So politicians did what they often do, bundle it with a bill that needed to be passed, and crossed their fingers the ploy would work.
On May 20th, supporters won. Moderate Democrats (many from states in the South and Midwest) joined just about all the House Republicans to pass the provision, which had already been approved in the Senate.
Will the bill mean chaos in the national parks? Serious concerns have been expressed by a coalition of groups that included the Fraternal Order of Police and the Association of National Park Rangers who fear the bill will "increase the risk of poaching, vandalism of historic park treasures and threats to park visitors and staff."
The bill would allow gun owners to bring the weapons into national parks and wildlife refuges as long as they are permitted by the laws of the state in which the park is located.
As such, it is a pretty modest kind of change. It basically says that if it’s okay with the state to bring concealed weapons the guns can also be carried in to the national parks and refuges in that state.
However, guns can not be brought into national parks and refuges in other states.
From the NRA press release: This bill provides consistency across our nation’s federal lands and puts an end to the patchwork of regulations that govern different lands managed by different federal agencies. In the past, only Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands allowed the carrying of firearms, while National Parks and Wildlife Refuges did not. ... This move restores the rights of law-abiding gun owners who wish to transport and carry firearms for lawful purposes on most DOI lands and makes federal law consistent with the state law in which these lands are located.
Over the weeks I’ve been following this, I’ve come to understand that not all gun supporters are lunatics. I’ve reached this conclusion despite the lunatic fringe who have questioned my sanity, and my ability to think straight – and in the process only proved gun control advocates worst fears – that there are lunatics out there with guns.
But even more have written thoughtful replies and made some excellent points, reassuring me, at least, that not all men and women with guns shoot at people who irritate them. In fact, I’ve learned a lot from them. Now, if they could just convince their less rational peers to learn a bit of control, it would do the whole movement a lot of good. Strident attacks on supporters of gun control only convince us all the more for the need to keep guns out of their trigger-happy hands.
It remains to be seen whether national parks will become shooting galleries. If they do, we’ll have learned something important, and sad. But I personally think that’s unlikely. Responsible gun owners will be as responsible as they have always been. And kooks with guns, well, they probably never did pay much attention to the law.
What do you think?
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Comments
There's no way that this can be good.
It "remains to be seen whether national parks will become shooting galleries" only for those who are completely ignorant when it comes to concealed carry reform. All this change does it allow people who otherwise legally carry in that state to continue to do so in a national park. Nobody "new" will be allowed to carry a gun specifically because of this rule change. It's really a states rights issue more than one of gun control.
what ben said is right. the parks will actually be safer,now that responsible gun owners are allowed to protect themselves and any others that may be in harms way.
I'm a gun owner and a strong believer in gun rights. However, I think this was a bad piece of legislation. The federal government's foray into credit card reform is very bad. While allowing concealed carry in the parks is a good thing by itself, I think it's bad to have gone about it this way. Better to fight a more principled battle some other way.
Poachers were already breaking the law before this bill passed, so it won't change a thing.
Anyone care to guess how many anti self defense laws were passed using this legislative trick?
I dislike the technique itself. It's a sneaky way to get something passed, regardless of what it is. Oh, wait. Sneaky -- doesn't that already describe too many politicians?
Sleazy methods aside, this is a move in the right direction. On the other hand, it isn't meaningful enough in terms of public safety. We need to be expanding concealed carry rights in places where crime is high, not in the wilderness. With this milestone at our backs, we can focus on expanding college campus carry.
For the guy who said people were poaching before the ban was lifted... You're missing the point. It isn't about poaching. Its about protecting ourselves against the unlawful who carry guns regardless of the laws.
So since the gun laws don't affect those that wish to harm us it would be cruel and unusual to not allow the honest and law abiding the ways and means to defend against them. So essentially if you don't want to carry a firearm then you are not invited to the argument because you don't calculate into the issue; and when there's a criminal pointing a gun at you in the future, you've given him/her the right to decide your life's worth and your fate. Good luck with that because I'm betting that criminal doesn't care to contemplate your worth.
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